Re-Discovered Treasures: The Job by Sinclair Lewis

The Job: An American Novel was one of two novels printed by Sinclair Lewis in 1917. The other was The Innocents which many consider to be another "pot boiler" of a novel. "Pot boiler" is the modern equivalent of "pulp fiction" or "mass market fiction." The Job is a serious novel, and is considered one of the earliest works by a major author (though Lewis would not gain fame for another three years) to strongly advocate the rights of working women in society.

"The Job" takes place over a decade from 1905-1915. In this novel the hero is actually a heroine: Miss Una Golden. In 1905 she is 24 yrs. old and lives in the town of Panama, Pennsylvania. Initially a stay at home proper woman, when her father becomes sick she is forced to work to provide for the family, and finds the world of work a place where she desires to excel, but work for women is considered a jumping point (always out of necessity) to marriage, and there is a stigma about marrying a working woman.

The rest of the story over those ten years is about Una's determination to find a good, romantic man to fall in love with while also making a career for herself in business, considered a "man's job." Her initial decision was to not get married, but she was lonely and in that time period it was difficult for working women to find a mate because there is a stigma attached to working. This, along with societal pressure, was part of the reason that Una makes a bad decision to marry the wrong man.

Walter Babson is an early suitor who appears like a good man. However, there is another man who appears, a widower named Edward Schwirtz who is a smooth talking salesman. In a bad decision, she marries him. The next couple years are unhappy and finally she divorces him after two unhappy years where she makes little headway in her marriage or her career.