When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store

by Elaine S. Abelson

This book focuses on middle-class urban women as participants in new forms of consumer culture. Within the special world of the department store, women found themselves challenged to resist the enticements of consumption. Many succumbed, buying both what they needed and what they desired, but also stealing what seemed so readily available. Pitted against these middle-class women were the management, detectives, and clerks of the department stores. Abelson argues that in the interest of concealing this darker side of consumerism, women of the middle class, but not those of the working class, were allowed to shoplift and plead incapacitating illness--kleptomania. The invention of kleptomania by psychiatrists and the adoption of this ideology of feminine weakness by retailers, newspapers, the general public, the accused women themselves, and even the courts reveals the way in which a gender analysis allowed proponents of consumer capitalism to mask its contradictions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Gender, Sociology

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be pretty dry, as I was warned it would be. But parts of it were just fascinating! Many of the large, big-city department stores were still pretty much intact when I was younger, and I well remember that feeling of awe as I walked through the doors. (Although I never felt the overwhelming compulsion to steal something.) It was amazing to me to learn that as long as there have been department stores, there have been shoplifters. I would have liked more anecdotes, although I'm sure the author used everything she could find. I found the chapter about the increased use of glass (as larger windows, glass-enclosed counters, and large mirrors) to be especially interesting. And I thought the author brought it all home at the end when she discussed the so-called medical reasons that comfortable, middle-class women suffered from the "disease" of kleptomania. They just couldn't help themselves!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be shortened by more than half …

[Marisa (Berman) Hollywood, Ph.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The relationship between menstruation and insanity, a key element in explanations of female behavior, became integral to the debate over kleptomania."

Feminine weakness, sexual repression, insanity, and obsession are some of the main theories behind shoplifting in the Victorian era. Excellent history with a diverse mix of sources. Highly enjoyable.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you are really in the mood to read about the rise of shoplifting among middle-class women with the modernization of department stores during the Victorian age...then here you go. Its a hard slog though...one I have yet to finish after two attempts.