Author Description

"Goodwin explores women's lived experiences and work histories in Las Vegas during the second half of the twentieth century--a period of unprecedented growth in the city's service economy. Although Las Vegas' unique industry of gambling may initially suggest that women's work was somehow different than in other cities, this study argues that despite job categories of dealer, dancer, or diva, jobs for the majority of women remained characterized by gender and race segmentation. Furthermore, women created lives that blended work and family within that context and, in some cases, rose to positions of leadership within their respective fields. Based on nearly fifteen years of documentation and original research, Neon Narratives brings the lives of individual women into the history of the country's biggest tourist industry and in the process reveals much about the broader transitions for women that took place in American society between 1940 and 1990"--