America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines

In this sweeping cultural history, Gail Collins explores the transformations, victories, and tragedies of women in America over four hundred years. As she traces the role of females from their arrival on the Mayflower through the 19th century to the feminist movement of the 1970s and today, she demonstrates a boomerang pattern of participation and retreat.

In some periods, women were expected to work in the fields and behind the barricades—to colonize the nation, become the pioneer women of the West, and run the defense industries of World War II. In the decades between, economic forces and cultural attitudes shunted them back into the home, confining them to the role of moral beacon and domestic goddess. Told chronologically through the compelling true stories of individuals whose lives, linked together, provide a complete picture of the American woman’s experience, America's Women is a landmark work of US social history and major contribution for us all.

This definitive narrative of American cultural history explores the complex forces that have shaped the lives of women—and the nation itself:

• From the Mayflower to the Modern Era: Follow the panoramic story of the American woman from the harrowing journey of the first colonists and the grit of pioneer women to the fight for suffrage and the feminist movements of the 20th century.
• A Cycle of Progress and Retreat: Discover the fascinating boomerang pattern of participation and retreat, as women moved from the fields and factories of wartime to the confines of the home as domestic goddesses, and back again.
• Helpmates and Heroines: Meet the captivating characters—both famous and forgotten—whose compelling true stories, from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression, create a complete picture of the female experience.
• Landmark Social History: Rich in detail and told with a novelist's eye, this landmark work reveals the transformations, victories, and tragedies that defined four hundred years of women's history in America.