The 19th century has been referred to as the "Woman's Century," and it was a period of amazing change and progress for American women. There were great leaps forward in women's legal status, their entrance into higher education and the professions, and their roles in public life. In addition, approximately two million African American female slaves gained their freedom. The book examines how economic, political, and social factors in the United States affected women's roles and how women helped shape history. Each thematic chapter addresses ideas about women's proper roles as well as women's experiences of living in the 19th century. While the dominant ideas about appropriate gender roles originated from within the white Protestant and primarily middle-class culture, each chapter compares those ideas with the reality of different women's daily lives, integrating information on European American, African American, Native American, and immigrant women, and women of different socioeconomic and religious backgrounds and regions.