Dorothy Parker's fiery personality was often mirrored in her caustic

Dorothy Parker's fiery personality was often mirrored in her caustic stories, which were brazen for the 1930's, a time period in which women were more cautious about voicing their opinions.

A) in which women were more cautious about voicing their opinions
B) where women were more cautious about voicing their opinions
C) in which women had been more cautious about voicing their opinions
D) when women would have been more cautious about voicing their opinions
E) when women had been more cautious about voicing their opinions

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

•The sentence is correct as written because the simple past form of the verb (were) is accurate.

• Choice B also uses the simple past tense (were) but incorrectly uses where to refer to a time period

• Choices C and E use the past perfect had been, but the correct tense is the simple past tense (were)

• Choice D also uses the incorrect verb tense (would have been).

• In this sentence, when and in which are interchangeable.

The correct answer is A.

COMMENTS

• Past perfect or Simple Past?

Sometimes ideas take hold. A snowball turns into an avalanche.
Such is the case with past perfect when simple past will do.

If a sentence has a sequence word such as before or after;
OR if a sentence has a date that establishes sequence (or dates that establish sequence),
then simple past is preferred.

This subject is so controversial that I am going to quote Mike McGarry
and should you disagree, take your argument there —good luck! :-D :

The GMAT will often consider use of the past perfect tense incorrect if there are other clear indicators of time sequence in the sentence.

You can find that remark in this post.

Good writers know that "had" should be used sparingly.
The past perfect tense can create depth, but unnecessary use of past perfect reminds the reader
repeatedly that s/he is in the past of the past — that reminder created by past perfect
inserts another layer of time between the reader and the material.
Generally we want as few layers as possible between the reader and the material.

Another good piece of advice that does not apply in this instance is:
if you run into a situation in which past perfect is pitted against simple past, look for a different decision point.
We don't have one in this case.

• Analyzing the sentence

Dorothy Parker's fiery personality was often mirrored in her caustic stories, which were brazen for the 1930's, a time period in which women were more cautious about voicing their opinions.

Let's break this sentence down.
1) past time marker: Dorothy Parker's stories . . . WERE brazen for the 1930s
2) [something about the 1930s and women were cautious about voicing opinions]

-- Eliminate B. "Where" is used for actual places only.

-- Eliminate D. Use "would have been" for Type 3 conditionals
A quick overview of Type 3 conditionals is here.
Think "would/coulda/shoulda" for this tense. Lost opportunity.
could have, would have, and should have can be called modals of lost opportunity.
There is no lost opportunity in this question.

-- Type 3 conditionals - Would have been is used for an impossible condition in the past and its probable result in the past.
The verb phrase is used in a case that did not happen in the past.
-- Alternatively, we can think of Type 3 conditionals as an explanation that
present circumstances would be different if something different had happened in the past.
The structure is "IF past perfect, THEN conditional perfect."
IF I had watered the flowers last week, then they would have bloomed.

-- Now compare options C and E.

C) in which women had been more cautious about voicing their opinions
E) when women had been more cautious about voicing their opinions

If two options have identical constructions except for words that are interchangeable,
then neither option is the answer.

Think strategically. We are talking about a time period, the 1930's; in that case both when and in which are fine.

Eliminate C and E.
Generally, there is no reason to use past perfect unless it is necessary.

Answer A is correct.

GKomoku , you are correct; "when" is not the issue in this case.
Some prep companies have gone a bit overboard in warning against the use of "when."
When can be used for time periods; for zero conditionals; and in subordinate clauses (When she turned and smiled at him, his cheeks flushed.)

Shrinidhi gets the honorable mention and a smiley face.

@GKomoku gets kudos for best answer. Nice work!