In 1912 the department store was a relatively new and important urban institution. Shop Girls depicts female employees as they cut cloth from fabric bolts and ready them for sale. Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones rendered this modern subject in rapid, open brushwork, paying particular attention to effects of light and atmosphere. Her work of this period often represented women in the modern city: nursemaids at home, women strolling in the park, shoppers, and store clerks.

Sparhawk-Jones studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she learned from artists William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux. She developed an energetic painting style that drew from both Realism and Impressionism.