Introduction The role of women in society is a subject that has been in the debating chambers for a long time since women started agitating for equal rights with men. Feminists have conducted a strong campaign over this period to put women on the same plane as men due to the major inequalities that exist between the two genders. Society has been divided for a long time along gender lines, with men coming up as the stronger gender overall while women come in second as the weaker gender. The gender divide has been defined by the physical strength of both genders, with the stronger one dominating the weaker class. Physical strength in both men and women is attributed to physiological features of either gender, with men coming out on top. This has traditionally set the pace for roles in society as men take the difficult tasks while women assume the lesser difficult tasks. However, the situation is changing with time, with the divide of gender roles getting thinner and thinner by the day. The present-day woman has many more roles that were initially meant for men. The trend shows a departure from the past. The America of the seventeenth century brings out the evolution of a woman’s role by showing how the world has been working hard to break from the past punitive laws that suppressed the woman. As the paper reveals, the role of women in America was then a replica of the role of other women especially in Britain where it was well documented. The American experience was the first crack in breaking from the past. The Place of Women in the 17 th Century At Home During the 17 th century, the woman’s role was strictly defined to the sense that women were subordinate to men while at home. A girl who was not married belonged to her father while a woman who was married belonged to her husband (Ben-Yehuda 2). Women in America had a role in keeping the home and/or being responsible for the home when men had gone out either to hunt, to fight in war, or to meet fellow men in their drinking joints. As Ben-Yehuda finds, the experiences of the seventeenth century American woman were not too far from those of the European woman in terms of societal responsibilities and treatment (2). The woman was responsible for taking care of the children during their young age by being responsible for all their day-to-day needs. During this time, there was no place for children around men because the children were the responsibility for women. They were supposed to ensure that the whole family and children had enough meals. The woman had a great responsibility in the kitchen where she was in charge of preparing meals. On the other hand, men had a role in the bigger picture of securing food for the family in terms of going to the farm, herding animals, and hunting. When the man came home from the fields, he would give whatever food he has come back with to the woman who would then prepare it as the day’s meal or preserve it for future use. Dressmaking was a preserve of women during the 17 th century America. To this extent, all girls were taught in their early ages how to knit. Girls were trained during their young ages while at home by their mothers on how to become good women, and hence good wives. According to Fara, most girls in families lacked the education their brothers had because they had been taught the domestic skills