Housewives constitute a large section of the population, yet they have received very little attention, let alone respect. Glenna Matthews, who herself spent many years as "just a housewife" before becoming a scholar of American history, sets out to redress this imbalance.
While the male world of work has always received the most respect, Matthews maintains that widespread reverence for the home prevailed in the nineteenth century. The early stages of industrialization made possible a strong tradition of cooking, baking, and sewing that gave women great satisfaction and a place in the...

In the 1630s, Anne Hutchinson - the wife of a Boston merchant and mother of fifteen children - defied the Calvinist clergy by holding meetings and espousing a controversial religious stance. When asked to stop, she did not, and as a result of her outspokenness, Hutchinson was subjected to two trials, then excommunicated and exiled to upstate New York. For 200 years, Hutchinson was held as the model of an American Jezebel, a female transgressor who threatened the community with social chaos and sexual impropriety. But as The Rise of Public Woman skillfully reveals, what was really on trial was...

An encyclopedia of American women's history, this comprehensive reference book features in-depth articles on trends (e.g. birthrates, suburban growth), social movements (civil rights, feminism), ideas and concepts (domesticity, consciousness-raising), institutions (Children's Bureau, women in Congress), organizations (Girl Scouts of America, League of Women Voters), events (American Revolution), issues (abortion, Equal Rights Amendment), key legal cases (Roe v Wade, Muller v Oregon), laws and constitutional amendments, documents and publications (Ramona, Declaration of Sentiments), ethnic and...

What accounts for the growing income inequalities in Silicon Valley, despite huge technological and economic strides? Why have the once-powerful labor unions declined in their influence? How are increasing waves of immigration and ethnic diversity changing the workplace in the Valley? Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream examines these questions from a fresh perspective: that provided by the history of women in Silicon Valley in the twentieth century. Silicon Valley is internationally renowned. It is less well known, however, that the Valley once contained the world's...

What accounts for the growing income inequalities in Silicon Valley, despite huge technological and economic strides? Why have the once-powerful labor unions declined in their influence? How are increasing waves of immigration and ethnic diversity changing the workplace in the Valley? Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream examines these questions from a fresh perspective: that provided by the history of women in Silicon Valley in the twentieth century. Silicon Valley is internationally renowned. It is less well known, however, that the Valley once contained the world's...

Breaks new ground in its coverage of California during the Civil War era, in terms of geography and social groupings.