In this essay, Petrusso examines the role of women in The Front Page.

In recent reviews of The Front Page, several critics have contended that the play denigrates the role of women. For example, John Bemrose of Maclean's maintained that "the air is perpetually blue with profanity and verbal attacks some of them directed against blacks and women."

John Simon argued that the reporters "have contempt at best for women lovers, whatever doesn't jibe with their grimy, grubby, ecumenical smugness."

I assert that the negative attitudes towards women in the play are not this simple. While The Front Page certainly has sexist elements, the female characters play key roles: defining standards and even saving their male counterparts on occasion.

There are two kinds of women in The Front Page: those who work (Jennie and Mollie) and those who marry (Mrs. Schlosser, Peggy Grant, and Mrs. Grant). Though...