Since women first began taking regular positions as stenographers and secretaries in the 1860s, the popular American conception of the "office" has been of a place charged with sexual tensions and possibilities. In Sex and the Office, Julie Berebitsky traces the development of both the myths and realities of office sexual politics from the late 19th century into the present day.
Although it's arranged more or less chronologically, Sex and the Office is not so much a descriptive history as an analytical one. At each step, Berebitsky explores popular ideas about what went on sexually in offices through her analysis of popular novels, newspaper and magazine articles, cartoons, plays and other pop culture ephemera. Intertwined with these imagined scenarios is a discussion of the actual experiences of both male and female office workers at the time, drawn from interviews, personal letters and other primary sources. Berebitsky also takes the opportunity to look at how sex and gender expectations in the office affected both men and women. Though women, particularly those at the bottom of the pay scale, often bore the brunt of sexual expectations and escapades, men also suffered under restrictive gender norms and paid the price for indiscretions.
Berebitsky's scholarly tone makes Sex and the Office an unlikely candidate for light reading, but the thorough analysis of its subject over a 150-year period, drawing on primary and pop-culture sources, make it both an interesting read and a valuable resource. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at The Literary Cricket