Annette Petruso is a freelance author and screenwriter in Austin, TX. In the following essay, Petruso discusses the depiction of female characters in Once in a Lifetime and compares this with the reality of women's lives in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

One interesting aspect of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's play Once in a Lifetime (1930) is its depiction of women. In this time period, the perception and status of women in the United States had recently undergone a fundamental change, and the play reflects the inherent contradictions. Some female characters have some complexity to them. This essay looks at the status of women in America in this time period, then the female characters in Once in a Lifetime.

By the late 1920s, many women in the United States had more power and much different social values than even a decade early. In 1920, women were...