Why read When Women Ran Fifth Avenue?

Book cover of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion

Book description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A glittering portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza. • "Ms. Satow’s carefully researched book is compulsively readable: I found myself dashing through it like a novel. She…

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Why read it?

1 author picked When Women Ran Fifth Avenue as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Marie Carter

Author

I loved that Julia Satow uncovers the history of lesser-known female department store professionals who hit the pinnacle of their careers in an era when few women were allowed to have executive careers following the Depression.

What delighted me the most were the details of tactics employed by the women to attract more consumers to the stores, such as selling bestselling novels that glamorized the career of an assistant buyer in the shop or the men’s club in which they could gawk at underwear models while shopping for lingerie for their wives. I was also surprised and amused by the…

From Marie's list on history about working women in New York City.