This is fascinating and in tension with a naive view regarding gender roles at the time. One wonders too about the clientele that these detectives had, who hired them, and were these clients especially looking for women detectives? What kinds of crimes did they investigate and what was the overlap with the investigation of male detectives? Did clients think they had distinct skills or that they would be less likely to be suspected of investigating?
This is fascinating and in tension with a naive view regarding gender roles at the time. One wonders too about the clientele that these detectives had, who hired them, and were these clients especially looking for women detectives? What kinds of crimes did they investigate and what was the overlap with the investigation of male detectives? Did clients think they had distinct skills or that they would be less likely to be suspected of investigating?
Thanks for an interesting post.