Most residents of American cities during the Gilded Age worked demanding jobs for low wages, toiling in factories or sweatshops and returning at night to crowded and unsanitary housing. But the new era of industry and innovation didn’t only produce misery: as factories and commercial enterprises expanded, they required an army of bookkeepers, managers, and secretaries to keep business running smoothly. These new clerical jobs, which were open to women as well as men, fostered the growth of a middle class of educated office workers who spent their surplus income on a growing variety of consumer goods and leisure activities.
