SHARER, Wendy B.

Winter 2003, pages 5-32

Genre Work: Expertise and Advocacy in the Early Bulletins of the U.S. Women's Bureau

Abstract: Recent scholars explain "genres" as important sites of flux. Instances of instability or change in genres often reflect. and enact. critical power struggles. After tracing recent genre theory, I consider how the varied textual elements in the early bulletins of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor reflect and enact the power struggles that emerged as a particular group of American women labor activists attempted to gain authority within the federal bureaucracy.