“Rose'sTurn” Female Careers in the Life (1908–1984) and Portrayals (1940–1959) of Ethel Merman

This article discusses the construction of images of female careers through a case from musical theater, with a particular focus on following the life and roles of Ethel Merman – ‘The Grande Dame of Broadway’ – both on and off the stage. By focusing on an individual performer, we wish to highlight how we can achieve a more complex understanding of the constructions of female career-possibilities than we can by studying representations or biography alone, and how analyses of gender and popular culture tend to overlook the importance of the performers and instead focus solely on the representation.