# Women in the United States

The history of women in the United States describes the lived experiences and contributions of women throughout American history.
The earliest women living in what is now the United States were Native Americans. European women arrived in the 17th century and brought with them European culture and values. During the 19th century, women were primarily restricted to domestic roles in keeping with Protestant values. The campaign for women's suffrage in the United States culminated with the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. During World War II, many women filled roles vacated by men fighting overseas. Beginning in the 1960s, the second-wave feminist movement changed cultural perceptions of women, although it was unsuccessful in passing the Equal Rights Amendment. In the 21st century, women have achieved greater representation in prominent roles in American life.

## Quotes
### 17th century

* These whimm’ Crown’d shees, these fashion-fancying wits, Are empty thin brain’d shells, and fiddling Kits.
** Nathaniel Ward, The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam (1647)

### 18th century

* I long to hear that you have declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws ... I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
** Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams (31 March 1776); L. H. Butterfield (ed.) Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1 (1963), pp. 369–71
* Patriotism in the female sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honors and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Government from having held a place of eminence. ... Yet all history and every age exhibit instances of patriotic virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation equals the most heroic of yours.
** Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams (17 June 1782); L. H. Butterfield; M. Friedlaender (eds.) Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 4 (1973)

### 19th century
#### 1810s

* How little do lovely women know what awful beings they are, in the eyes of inexperienced youth! Young men brought up in the fashionable circles of our cities will smile at all this. Accustomed to mingle incessantly in female society, and to have the romance of the heart deadened by a thousand frivolous flirtations, women are nothing but women in their eyes; but to a susceptible youth like myself, brought up in the country, they are perfect divinities.
** Washington Irving, "Mountjoy" (wr. 1818), in The Knickerbocker, vol. 14, no. 6 (December, 1839), p. 528
* I wave often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity.
** Washington Irving, "The Wife", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), p. 39
* Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force, to be the comforter and supporter of her husband, under misfortune, and abiding, with unshrinking firmness, the bitterest blasts of adversity.
** Washington Irving, "The Wife", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), pp. 39–40
* There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
** Washington Irving, "The Wife", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), p. 47
* No man knows what the wife of his bosom is—no man knows what a ministering angel she is—until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.
** Washington Irving, "The Wife", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), p. 47
* A woman’s whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world; it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul in the traffick of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy of the heart.
** Washington Irving, "The Broken Heart", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), pp. 142–3
* As the dove will clasp its wings to its side, and cover and conceal the arrow that is preying on its vitals, so it is in the nature of women to hide from the world the pangs of wounded affection.
** Washington Irving, "The Broken Heart", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 1 (1819), p. 144
* I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow.
** Washington Irving, "Christmas Eve", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 5 (1819), p. 376

#### 1820s

* I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.
** Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., no. 6 (1820), p. 80
* A woman is more considerate in affairs of love than man; because love is more the study and business of her life.
** Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall; or, The Humorists (1822), vol. 2, "Annette Delarbre", p. 155

#### 1840s

* The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. ... He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective to the franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. ... Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
* We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention, printed in the North Star (July 28, 1848)

#### 1850s

* The schoolmaster is apt to be a favorite with the female part of creation, especially in the rural districts.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 132, no. 1113
* O woman! thou knowest the hour when the good man of the house will return, when the heat and burden of the day are past; do not let him at such time, when he is weary with toil and jaded with discouragement, find upon his coming to his habitation that the foot which should hasten to meet him is wandering at a distance, that the soft hand which should wipe the sweat from his brow is knocking at the door of other houses.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 225, no. 1925
* A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands, but a mother's love endures through all.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 271, no. 2331
* There is one in the world who feels for him who is sad a keener pang than he feels for himself; there is one to whom reflected joy is better than that which comes direct; there is one who rejoices in another's honor more than in any which is one's own; there is one on whom another's transcendent excellence sheds no beam but that of delight: that one is woman.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 276, no. 2368
* The very difference of character in marriage produces a harmonious combination.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 359, no. 3082
* There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
** Attributed to Washington Irving (d. 1859). Reported in Ballou (1882), p. 387, no. 3320

#### 1860s

* Women's degradation is in man's idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth that I have uttered.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Letter to Susan B. Anthony (14 June 1860), in T. Stanton and H. Stanton Blaher (eds.) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, vol. 2 (1922), p. 82
* "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.
** John Greenleaf Whittier, "Barbara Frietchie", in The Atlantic Monthly (October, 1863). The lines are based on an folkloric account of the real Barbara Fritchie, said to have made a similar challenge to Confederate invaders of Maryland during the Civil War (Fall, 1862)
* Women have been called queens a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
** Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl (1869; 1870), ch. 13

#### 1890s

* I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women.
** Susan B. Anthony, addressing women typesetters, in Ida Husted Harper, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, vol. 1 (1898), p. 308
* The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God, I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman, for all the religions on the face of the earth degrade her, and so long as woman accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Woman's Bible (1898), introduction
* In the criminal code we find no feminine pronouns, as "He," "His," "Him," we are arrested, tried and hung, but singularly enough, we are denied the highest privileges of citizens, because the pronouns "She," "Hers" and "Her," are not found in the constitutions. It is a pertinent question, if women can pay the penalties of their crimes as "He," why may they not enjoy the privileges of citizens as "He"?
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Woman's Bible (1898), "Exodus", ch. 2
* The darkest page in history is the persecutions of woman.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Woman's Bible (1898), "Exodus", ch. 5
* Men think that self-sacrifice is the most charming of all the cardinal virtues for women, and in order to keep it in healthy working order, they make opportunities for its illustration as often as possible. I would fain teach women that self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Woman's Bible (1898), "Exodus", ch. 7

### 20th century
#### 1910s

* I am not sure that the old great lady who could only smatter Italian was not more vigorous than the new great lady who can only stammer American.
** G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910), "Folly and Female Education"

#### 1920s

* I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.
** F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), ch. 1 — loq. Daisy
* Yet this the need of woman, this her curse: To range her little gifts, and give, and give, Because the throb of giving’s sweet to bear.
** Dorothy Parker, "I Know I Have Been Happiest", Enough Rope (1926), p. 40
* Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses.
** Dorothy Parker, "News Item", Enough Rope (1926), p. 85
** Ogden Nash, "Lines Written to Console the Ladies...", Hard Lines (1930), p. 21:
    A girl who is bespectacled Don’t even get her nectacled, But safety pins and bassinets Await the girl who fascinets.
** Christopher Morley, "Postscript to a Famous Verse", The Middle Kingdom (1944), p. 102:
    But glasses can always be checked By a girl who’s about to be necked.
** Letty Cottin Pogrebin, "Down with Sexist Upbringing", in Ms. magazine (Spring 1972), p. 25:
    Boys don't make passes at female smart-asses.
* The ladies men admire, I’ve heard, Would shudder at a wicked word. Their candle gives a single light; They’d rather stay at home at night. They do not keep awake till three, Nor read erotic poetry. They never sanction the impure, Nor recognize an overture. They shrink from powders and from paints... So far, I’ve had no complaints.
** Dorothy Parker, "Interview", Enough Rope (1926), p. 106

#### 1930s

* American women shoot the hippopotamus with eyebrows made of platinum.
** E. M. Forster, "Mickey and Minnie", in Abinger Harvest (1936); cf. Hilaire Belloc, "The Hippopotamus", in The Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896)
* These women, so swift to kindness, so tender to the sorrowing, so untiring in times of stress, could be as implacable as furies to any renegade who broke one small law of their unwritten code. This code was simple. Reverence for the Confederacy, honor to the veterans, loyalty to old forms, pride in poverty, open hands to friends and undying hatred to Yankees.
** Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936), ch. 47
* She was seeing through Rhett's eyes the passing, not of a woman but of a legend — the gentle, self-effacing but steel-spined women on whom the South had builded its house in war and to whose proud and loving arms it had returned in defeat.
** Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936), ch. 63
* Scarlett: Sir, you are no gentleman! Rhett: And you, miss, are no lady. Scarlett: Oh! Rhett: Don't think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me.
** Gone with the Wind (1939 film)

#### 1940s

* Women should be kept illiterate and clean, like canaries.
** Woman of the Year (1942 film) — loq. Phil Whittaker (Roscoe Karns)
* A woman still has to be twice as good as a man in order to get half as far.
** Fannie Hurst, at the National Conference of Women sponsored by The New York Times (1943); reported in Beth Blair, "Women Will Have New World Status", Miami Daily News (27 April 1943), p. 11a, col. 5
* For years, women have been ridiculed, pampered, chucked under the chin. I ask you, on behalf of us all, be fair to the fair sex.
** Adam's Rib (1949 film) — loq. Amanda Bonner (Katharine Hepburn)
* Men grow cold as girls grow old And we all lose our dreams in the end, But square-cut or pear-shaped, These rocks don't lose their shape: Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
** Leo Robin, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949)

#### 1950s

* She wasn't much over five feet and a hundred pounds, and she looked a little scrawny around the neck and ankles. But that was all right. It was perfectly all right. The good Lord had known just where to put that flesh where it would really do some good.
** Jim Thompson, The Killer Inside Me (1952), ch. 2
* Will you look at that! Look how she moves! It's like Jell-O on springs. Must have some sort of built-in motor or something. I tell you, it's a whole different sex!
** Jerry (Jack Lemon) describing Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) in Some Like It Hot (1959 film), written by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan

#### 1960s

* The problem lay buried, unspoken for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban housewife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — "Is this all?"
** Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), ch. 1
* The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of American women alive.
** Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), ch. 13
* The problem that has no name—which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities.
** Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), ch. 14

#### 1970s

* Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke; that's their natural and first weapon. She will need sisterhood.
** Gloria Steinem, "Sisterhood", in Ms. (Spring 1972), p. 49
* So we think of Marilyn who was every man’s love affair with America, Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards.
** Norman Mailer, Marilyn (1973), p. 15
* If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women.
** Christopher Hampton, Savages (1974), sc. 16

#### 1990s

* Dames. Sometimes all they got to do is let it out and a few buckets later there's no way you'd ever know.
** Frank Miller, "Sin City", serialized in Dark Horse Presents, nos. 51–62 (June 1991–June 1992); retitled The Hard Goodbye in trade paperback; adapted as Sin City (2005 film)
* If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights — and women's rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.
** Hillary Clinton, Remarks while US First Lady to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China (5 September 1995)
* Never send a boy to do a woman's job.
** Hackers (1995 film) — loq. Kate "Acid Burn" Libby (Angelina Jolie)

### 21st century

* In too many instances, the march to globalization has also meant the marginalization of women and girls.
** Hillary Clinton, Remarks in the US Senate (8 March 2005); Congressional Record, 109th Congress, 1st Session, pt. 3, p. 3748, col. 3
* A true reckoning with structural disparities in the entertainment industry will demand ... acknowledging that women’s voices and women’s stories are not only worth believing, but also worth hearing. At every level.
** Sophie Gilbert, "The Men of #MeToo Go Back to Work", The Atlantic (October 12, 2018)

## External links

* M. M. Ballou (ed.) Notable Thoughts about Women: A Literary Mosaic (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; New York: Riverside Press, 1882)