How did class structure ethnicity and gender affect urban political affairs?

Because employment for wives and mothers was considered taboo, the vast majority of working women were single-their jobs depended on race, ethnicity, and class. Black women had few opportunities beyond domestic service; white-collar jobs were largely reserved for native-born women; immigrant women tended to cluster in particular industries, as Jewish women crowded in the garment trades. After contributing a large share of their earnings to their families, many women still had enough money in their pocketbooks to enter a new urban world of sociability.