The Wasp — 1896 — page 844: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon titled "DIPLOMACY" satirizes office politics and gender dynamics. It depicts a man in business attire seated while a woman in fashionable 1890s dress stands before him in an exaggerated pose. The caption references selecting a typewriter, with a humorous quote from "Old Maid's Diary" suggesting no scandal occurs when the selection is "left entirely to the proprietor's wife." The joke appears to mock both office management and women's workplace influence—implying that wives control hiring decisions, or satirizing how women gain power through indirect means rather than formal authority. The cartoon likely comments on evolving gender roles in professional settings during this era, when women were entering offices primarily as typists and secretaries.