Each of these three scenes includes a woman holding a handbag. Whether shopping in a crowded department store sale, waiting for an appointment in a doctor’s office, or eating at a lunch counter, urban women in the 1930s were active consumers, reflecting recent gains in employment and independence. The economic crisis of the Great Depression (1929–1939) strongly affected male-dominated industries such as coal mining and manufacturing. Jobs in nursing, teaching, and clerical work— typically held by women and paid less than jobs reserved for men—were somewhat more secure. Advertisers’ pursuit of the new “woman consumer” led magazines and newspapers to transform their content to appeal to women readers, as depicted in both Lunch Counter and Waiting Room.