The author presents a history of American women from the Indian woman of the 16th century to the dual-role career woman and mother of the 1980s.

The first American women -- The women who came to North America, 1607-1770 -- "But what have I to do with politicks?" : the Revolutionary Era -- The age of association : 1820-1845 -- A time of division : 1845-1865 -- "Maternal commonwealth" in the Gilded Age : 1865-1890 -- Women and modernity : 1890-1920 -- Flappers, Freudians, and all that jazz -- Surviving the Great Depression -- Women at war : the 1940s -- The Cold War and the "feminine mystique" -- Decade of discovery : "the personal is political" -- The politicization of personal life : women versus women.