The phrase "petticoat government" has referred to women running government or domestic affairs. The phrase is usually applied in a positive tone welcoming female governance of society and home, but occasionally is used to imply a threat to "appropriate" government by males, as was mentioned in several of Henry Fielding's plays. An Irish pamphlet "Petticoat Government, Exemplified in a Late Case in Ireland" was published in 1780. The American writer Washington Irving used the phrase in Rip Van Winkle (1819). Frances Trollope wrote "Petticoat Government: A Novel" in 1850. Emma Orczy wrote "Petticoat Government", another novel, in 1911. G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) mentions petticoat in a positive manner; to the idea of female dignity and power in his book, "What's Wrong With the World," (1910) he states: