Gail Collins

Collins describes the lives of American women from the colonial days to the near present. She describes on the lives of normal women as well as the lives of the women remembered by history. She tells how women dealt with household duties on covered wagons and discusses how the phenomenon "going steady" increased premarital sex. There are stories of how women came together to abolish slavery while denying free colored women membership in their societies. By giving all of these perspectives, Collins avoids painting women as perfect.

One criticism: Collins seems to sometimes gives too little credit to the role of men. However, since she does this by omission, not by belittling men, I suspect that it is just because there was a lot to fit in the book and history from the perspective of men can be found in other places.… (altro)