Liberty's Daughters - Overall

The female condition in America has always been a topic that usually doesn't see much space in US History text books. Typically, or as far as I can remember in any of my previous classes, the history of women in America has always been relegated to the trials and tribulations of the suffrage movement, and more recently woman's fight for equality in the workforce. That was honestly the thing that concerned me most upon beginning this text because having never discussed the plight of the female condition in the years leading up to, and shortly after, the American Revolution I was unsure how much of this would just be a new angle on an old topic, or something genuinely engaging and thought provoking. Having completed the book now I can honestly say I am surprised that it is not assigned reading in high school history courses or at least in introductory level American History courses because it seems like the cornerstone to the entire woman's rights movement in America. The Revolutionary War seemingly changed a heavily embedded perspective of male dominance and women being confined to household duties, and that is a transition of American ideals that I believe are worth noting. The most interesting part of the book, in my opinion, however was to see the transition of the American male opinion while women were beginning to really assert their influence on society. The transition was subtle and was over an expanse of years, but it was still significant, as men went from placating their partners, asserting their unquestioned dominance that the wife be there to meet their needs and have their children, calling assertive women, "trifling insignificant Animals" to valuing their virtuous tendencies so much as to say the fate of the republic stood upon on them. "We shall always be, what women please to make us," Norton quotes from an American magazine piece written by a man named "W.J." about the virtuosity of women and their positive effect on men, "It is in their power to give either a good or a bad turn to society, and to make men take whatever shape they think proper to impose." In the end I just never realized the amazing effect the Revolutionary War had on the rights and opportunities for American women, as typically all we read of are the men who fought and died for our freedom, leaving the history of women to about 10 pages almost 100 years afterward.