Writing a historical heroine in the shadow of Me, Too

[Michelle]

Question:

Does the current “Me, Too” focus on women’s equality in the workplace come into play for you as you develop the Clive and Henrietta relationship?

My Answer:

Not really, though I suppose I should say yes.

My saving grace in answering this question is that the character of Henrietta is partially based on a real woman who lived in Chicago during the Great Depression and who really did have all of the crazy jobs found in Book 1 of the series—A Girl Like You. Both the real woman and Henrietta were/are very plucky, determined and independent, though they are also very much women of that era.

Maybe if I had kept Clive and Henrietta in Chicago, playing the cop and his wife, Henrietta would have accepted the role of housewife more easily. But when I decided to make Clive the heir to a huge estate on the North Shore and fabulously wealthy, I wondered how such a young, poor woman with Henrietta’s personality, who’s used to being in the trenches and bringing home the bacon, would have fit into that world.

What I envisioned would happen is a kind of neat twist on the Cinderella story and forms the basis of Book 2 of the series—A Ring of Truth). In that book, Henrietta has to decide if this is really what she wants after all. The life that Clive is proposing isn’t necessarily all that enticing to her—to be walled up in the castle, as it were, protected and idle, with no responsibilities beyond being an ornament on Clive’s arm and attending committee meetings at the Club with Clive’s mother. I imagined that in the glittering world of Highbury, where an army of servants can be found to do all of the cooking and cleaning, Henrietta would be rather restless. She has to find something useful to do, and so it makes sense to her to help her proposed husband in the only way she can see—with his investigations, which totally shocks and disarms Clive, though he’s secretly a little bit attracted to this.

Henrietta’s motives, if you look closely, are initially driven by her love for Clive, not her own desires, which is also typical of that era and even still our own. Many women still give up their own desires to suit their husband’s goals. Let’s face it, Henrietta hasn’t grown up dreaming of being a detective; she only wants to do so now because it is the only way, she believes, that she can be of real service to her husband. Whether or not that’s true is debatable.

As the oldest child in her family and an overachiever, Henrietta wants to fit in and be pleasing—to fit nicely into the social moirés of the day, but she just can’t help being a little bit independent because she’s had to be for most of her young life thus far. So that’s the dilemma within Henrietta, and I think as such, she is a character a lot of women can relate to.

I wrote her more from what I thought was a realistic physiological perspective and not as a reaction to what’s happening today, though I do think it’s interesting that the real woman upon whom Henrietta is based was routinely fired for not letting her bosses feel her up. In that way, she could easily have been a poster girl for the “Me, Too” movement.

(Don't forget - each day I'll be drawing a name from the comments to win one of my books! I'll pick all of them - live! - on Friday.)

[Betty]

I am enjoying the way you are handling Henrietta, and of course she d feel this way

[Michelle]

Betty wrote: "I am enjoying the way you are handling Henrietta, and of course she d feel this way"

Thanks so much for that, Betty. It might seem unrealistic to some - who wouldn't want to be rich? - but I think there's something more to Henrietta. Glad you see that, too.

[Nancy]

What an interesting question and answer.

[Michelle]

Thanks, Nancy! Glad you found it so!