Situating laboring-class women in the larger context of the political liberalization and the profound social and economic transformations in late Qing and early Republican Beijing, this book presents a nuanced picture of women's potentials and possibilities, and their dangers and anxieties, in a rapidly changing city. The work is a major contribution to feminist scholarship, balancing two approaches: treating women as agents and using gender as an analytical category. Its focus on lower-class women's use of urban public space opens a new dimension in the study of modern Chinese cities. The volume contains solid research based on a variety of original sources, including local archives, newspapers and magazines, memoirs, social surveys, and interviews.