Good afternoon,

Kind of a mixed bag today, although these are two stories about work and what work does for women and society. I really enjoyed reading both of these and I hope you do too.

Dating! Work disintermediated the process of meeting a nice boy or girl to step out with:

The first time you have this cultural form that I call dating — young people going out and meeting one another in public spaces — that only starts when women start taking paid work outside the home. Dating is very much a working class women’s invention because they were the first ones to do it. Once I figured that out, I thought that dating as a theater to examine gender roles seemed more fruitful than just giving my theory of, “What’s the deal with men my age?”

https://heleo.com/conversation-rebecca-traister-and-moira-weigel-all-the-single-ladies-want-economic-freedom/10476/

Science! I will never miss an opportunity to send a link about the women of science:

Black and female, dozens had worked at the space agency as mathematicians, often under Jim Crow laws, calculating crucial trajectories for rockets while being segregated from their white counterparts. For decades, as the space race made heroes out of lantern-jawed astronauts, the stories of those women went largely untold. […] Ms. Shetterly reminded Mrs. Johnson of her persistence in the late 1950s, when she successfully pressed her supervisor into admitting her into traditionally all-male meetings. “You took matters in your own hands,” Ms. Shetterly said. “For other women, it was a revelation.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/books/on-being-black-female-math-whizzes-during-the-space-race.html?smid=tw-share

Happy Friday!

Alex.

PS it's been ages since I featured a saint in this newsletter. Do you have a favourite woman saint? Is there a notable woman saint you would like me to write about? Reply to this email if yes! I would love to hear from you.