This work investigates women's economic, social, political and cultural history, encompassing all ethnic and racial groups and religions. It provides a general introduction to the history of women in industrializing America. Both a history of women and a history of the United States, its chronology is shaped by economic stages and political events.

S. J. Kleinberg is professor and head of the Department of American Studies and History at Brunel University in England. She is the editor of Retrieving Women's History: Changing Perception of the Role of Women in Politics and Society, as well as the author of The Shadow of the Mills: Working Class Families in Pittsburgh, 1870-1907 and Women in American Society.