A Gentlewoman’s Profession: The Emergence of Feminized Publishing at Richard Bentley and Son, 1858- 1898 by Sarah Joann Lubelski A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Information University of Toronto © Copyright by Sarah Joann Lubelski 2019 A Gentlewoman’s Profession: The Emergence of Feminized Publishing at Richard Bentley and Son, 1858-1898 Sarah Joann Lubelski Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Information University of Toronto 2019 Abstract Publishing has evolved into a feminized profession, with women filling approximately 84 percent of positions under the managerial level. Well into the twentieth century, however, it was men publishers, booksellers and librarians who dominated the book trade. Histories of the publishing industry have not explored this gendered shift in depth. Using the London-based firm of Richard Bentley and Son (1829-1898) as a site of investigation, this dissertation considers the gender identity of publishing processes, organizations, and labour through the history of the firm’s women publisher’s readers. Drawing primarily on archival materials, I explore how the women publisher’s readers gained power and influence over the publishing process and used their positions as gatekeepers to challenge traditional gender ideology. This shift in the gendering of publishing and print materials at Bentley and Son reflects changes within the broader industry, and the evolution of gender ideology within the nineteenth- century social, cultural, political and legal landscapes. Beyond attending to a gap in historical scholarship, this exploration of the feminization of the publishing industry illuminates how gender ideology has shaped women’s entrance into, and movement within, professional environments, and provides a framework for analyzing print production through a gendered lens. ii Chapter one examines how women publishing workers have been constructed and represented within scholarship and popular culture. In chapter two, Bentley and Son’s organizational structure is analyzed to highlight women’s labour and demonstrate the impact of gender on the circuit of literary production. Women’s professionalization within the firm and the industrialization of publishing is considered in tandem in chapter three. Chapters four and five explore how women’s entrance into publishing has impacted the nature of print. Microanalyses of individual titles’ publication histories show how Bentley and Son’s women publisher’s readers perpetuated the values and ideologies of the Victorian women’s movement through the publication of print materials that supported women’s empowerment. A macroanalysis of the firm’s publishing lists further showcases the feminization of the firm, revealing an increase in fiction titles for women in gender-progressive genres, and the publication of women-oriented works in previously masculinized non-fiction categories. iii Acknowledgments The authorship of a work never encompasses the entire history of its production. This dissertation reflects the community that has surrounded me over the course of my PhD. I am deeply grateful for the support and wisdom of my supervisor Alan Galey, who has shown me that boundless curiosity, enthusiasm, and generosity are the cornerstones of academic research and teaching. My committee members, Lori Loeb and Siobhan Stevenson, have given me their invaluable time, insight, and expertise. It is a testament to my whole committee that this process has been as rewarding as it was challenging. I have continued to rely on the advice and wit of my MA supervisor, Jane Potter, for more than a decade. I am also indebted to the many librarians and archivists at the British Library, the London School of Economics’ Women’s Library, the University of California Los Angeles, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who helped me in the course of my research. My particular thanks to Adam Doskey and Elizabeth Hartman at UIUC, who took my sudden appearance in stride and became my co-explorers. A PhD program can be isolating by design, but best when not undertaken alone. Thank you to Brian Griffin, Nathan Moles, Christie Oh, Mark Sedore, Elisa Tersigni, and Hillary Walker Gugan, who have walked this path with me. I am inspired daily by the strength, passion, intelligence, and humour of Jenny Benson, Allison Boyd, Jan Crosser-Cooke, and Dorothy MacLeod. These incredible women have lifted me up countless times, literally and figuratively, and I am lucky to call them friends. My Mom is my first and most enduring cheerleader. Bubie has shown me the equal importance of joy and determination. Erin Cohen and Robyn Lubelski are part of my foundation, and I am grateful to have sisters who double as friends. Arie and Jonah Cohen are my favourite playmates and the best source of brightness. Jared French and our puppy Lucas fill my life with love and laughter. They are my home. My final thanks are for those who are no longer with me but have nevertheless brought me here. This dissertation is dedicated to the loving memory of my Dad, who stayed beside me, and Fiona Hysert, who taught me that women ought to take up space. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Constructing the Woman Publishing Worker: A Historiographical Analysis ............. 30 Chapter 2 A Publisher’s Communications Circuit: Building an Industrialized Publishing Firm . 75 Chapter 3 Regendering Office Space: The Rise of the Woman Professional ............................. 110 Chapter 4 Gender in Process: New Approaches to Gender on the Page .................................... 150 Chapter 5 Gender in Print: Reading the Publisher’s Lists .......................................................... 209 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 250 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 262 v List of Figures Chapter 2 2.1 The Communications Circuit………………………………………………………...90 2.2 The Whole Socioeconomic Conjecture………………………………………………91 2.3 The Bentley Circuit…………………………………………………………………..93 2.4 The Bentley Circuit Rough Draft…………………………………………………….97 2.5 Reader’s Report Form………………………………………………………………101 Chapter 4 4.1 Bentley’s Favourite Novels, 1886…………………………………………………..186 4.2 Bentley’s Favourite Novels, 1893…………………………………………………..187 4.3 Bentley’s Favourite Novels, 1897…………………………………………………..188 Chapter 5 5.1 Bentley’s Favourite Novels, 1897…………………………………………………..222 5.2 Title Page, A Selection of a Few of the More Prominent Books……………………229 5.3 Titles Selected for 1850, A Selection of a Few of the More Prominent Books…….229 5.4 Women- and Men-Oriented Fiction in A Selection of a Few of the More Prominent Books………………………………………………………………………………231 vi Introduction Summarizing a 2016 survey of 34 mainstream publishing firms and eight review journals in the United States, journalist Alison Flood concludes that “publishing is blindingly white and female, with 79% of staff white and 78% women.”1 Eighty-eight percent of these women, the survey also revealed, identify as heterosexual. In other words, as bluntly stated on the site Electric Literature, “straight white women run publishing.”2 Excluding management, the percentage of women employees in publishing creeps even higher: 84 percent of positions below the executive level are filled by women.3 These statistics are hardly surprising. Like librarianship, teaching and nursing, publishing has been established as a “feminized profession”—a term used to identify professional fields that are numerically dominated by women or gendered as feminine. The question of how and when this process of feminization began—and how it impacted print production as a whole—remains largely unanswered. Editor Jake Morrissey muses that men have abandoned publishing due to the promise of higher paychecks in other industries.4 Morrissey’s guess has basis in fact. Author Suzanne Rindell explains that publishing is a notoriously low-paying industry, with salaries “not increasing to scale with inflation or comparable professions.”5 In addition to low salaries, professions associated with women are also culturally marginalized, suffering from a negative popular image and low social status, write Paul S. Piper and Barbara E. Collamer in a study on gender and librarianship.6 Similar studies of feminized professions, such as teaching, law, and increasingly medicine, commonly report that professions associated with women are considered less 1 Alison Flood, “Publishing Industry is Overwhelmingly White and Female, US Study Finds,” Guardian, January 27, 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/27/us-study-finds-publishing-is-overwhelmingly-white-and-