Winner of the 1983 Fredrick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians.

American women have made great strides in the last century to win personal autonomy, sexual freedom, economic independence, and legal rights. Yet the vast majority of them still assume the domestic burdens that leave men free to play their traditional public roles. Examining women's lives in the larger context of U.S. social and political history, Rosenburg shows how American traditions of federalism, racial and ethnic diversity, geographic mobility, and relative abundance have both aided and hindered women's strides toward equality.This lively and informed analysis of the leaders, goals, and setbacks of the women's stride towards equality. This informed analysis of the leaders, goals, and setbacks of the women's movement is a landmark study.