Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a derog. term for a woman.

1860		J.G. Holland Miss Gilbert’s Career (1870) 154: He had succeeded in establishing the most cordial relations between himself and the portion of the family which he had collectively designated as the ‘dry-goods’.
1869		A.W. Tourgée Toinette xxxv. 362: [She] is the trimmest piece of dry-goods I have seen in many a day [DA].
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 33: dry-goods, n. A woman.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1970		G. Greer Female Eunuch 266: Who likes to be called dry-goods, a potato, a tomato or a rutabaga?