Women and the American Experience [antikvár]

Preface I ¦' Over the past two decades, the study of women's history has been transformed from a cottage industry, ignored by most professional historians, into a thriving academic enterprise. Spurred by feminist revival and the zeal of a new generation of scholars, courses on the subject have multiplied and publication has expanded geometrically. Scholarship within the field has been both bolstered and challenged by research on adjacent terrains, such as family history and social history. Collectively, since the late 1960s, historians of women have embarked on a major revisionist mission. Not only have they made women historically visible but, by focusing on women's experience, ',¦ they have revealed a lost dimension—a distinctive world—of women's work, i'. ' values, relationships, and politics. To recreate this world, historians have de- ' veloped new types of data, new sets of concepts, and above all a new per- i ' ¦. ' spective. ! ¦' Traditionally, women have been somewhere in the background of his- ; , tory, if not literally behind the scenes. In women's history, the stage revolves. As women move into the spotlight, the conventional stuff of texts and ' , tests—battles and treaties, elections and tariffs—recedes to the wings. Familiar phenomena do reappear, but invariably in a new light. Westward expansion and religious revivals, depressions and wars, urbanization and immigration, turn out to have had a different impact on women than on men. The pace of history is altered as well. Since most of the changes with which women are involved are long-term, incremental changes, a new time frame is needed; old divisions into political eras no longer have the same significance. Most important, a new cast of characters appears. The stage is now filled with daughters and widows, housewives and midwives, congregants and missionaries, domestic servants and garment workers, clubwomen, settle- , ment workers, and suffragists. Exploring their experience brings into view a new spectrum of concerns: courtship customs and marriage options, fertility patterns and child-rearing practices, dower rights and property rights, female friendship and women's networks, gender consciousness and feminist consciousness. Once women are the center of attention, history has a different , ^ script. This book is an introduction to the history of American women, based primarily on the scholarship of the past two decades. It suggests the scope of the field, the types of questions that historians have asked, and the most important themes and issues that have emerged. The focus is on women's experience in family life, economic life, and public life, with attention to the pervasive impact of class and race. Of special concern are topics that recur throughout and give women's history its distinctive character. I am in-