The Women by Clare Boothe

"Where would any of us get if we played fair?"

Crystal

THE WOMEN

THE PLAY

"Helas, what else can a woman do with her youth but give it to a man? " (Countess)

THE WOMEN was first performed in 1936 and is a satire about wealthy Manhattan socialites. The play is famous for having an all female cast, but highlights how their lives are consumed by their relationships to men.

Mary discovers that her husband is having a relationship with another woman and she demands a divorce, which she comes to regret.

Some critics at the time considered it a poisonous, misogynistic attack on women. It also ran for 657 performances and was Boothe's most popular work.

THE WRITER

"An indictment of narcissism and frivolity, THE WOMEN thrusts an unflattering mirror at the female image." (Victoria Sullivan & James Hatch, Introduction to Plays By and About Women, 1974)

Clare Boothe (1903-1987) was an American writer, politician and Conservative public figure.

As a writer in the 1930s, she developed a reputation for her biting wit with several of her plays and as a writer at Vogue. Later, she become associate editor and managing editor of Vanity Fair.

During World War Two, she began to focus on war journalism and politics - winning a Republican congressional seat in 1942 and serving as ambassador to Italy from 1953-1956.

She became a very prominent Conservative figure over the course of her life.