The Evolving Role of Women in American History The role of American women has changed significantly from the time the nation was born, through the modern era of the 1990s 50s and 60s. Many people "... believed that women's talents and energies ... would be better [used] in the new republic." (Clinton 3) Clearly demonstrating that society saw the importance of women's talents and that their skills can be very useful, it exploited them and therefore the change in the role of women was inevitable. Society has realized that the role of women plays an important role in all aspects of life. Understanding the significant change in the role of women means understanding its roots. Traditionally, women in colonial America were limited in the roles they held or limited in their "spheres of influence." Women were once seen only as necessary to bear children and care for them. Their only role was domestic; related to activities such as cooking and cleaning. A married woman shared her husband's status and often lived with his family. After the divorce the woman was denied any legal control over her possessions, land, money and even her children. In a sense, she was the property of her husband after marriage. She "... was legally incompetent, as children, idiots and criminals were under English law. As a secret woman, she was deprived of all property; once married, of the clothes on her back, of her personal possessions, be they valuable, changeable or simply sentimental - and her body also became her husband, to be managed, managed and used. Once the couple was born a child, her land also came under her control. (Berkin 14) “Most…women in the colonies…lived in rural and agricultural settings.” (Berkin, 139) Their newspaper……half of the paper……tedBender , David L. The Women's Rights Movement, Opposing Views: Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego 1996Berkin, Carol. First Generations, Women in Colonial America: Hill and Wang, New York 1992Clinton, Catherine L'. another civil war, American women in the nineteenth century: Hill and Wang, New York 1986 Kaledin, Eugenia. American Women in the 1950s, Mothers, and More: Twayne Publishers, Boston 1984Kaufman, Debra R. and Richardson, Barbara L. Achievement and Women, Challenging the Assumptions: The Free Press, New York 1982Rappaport, Doreen. American Women, Their Lives in Theirs: Thomas Y. Crowell, New York 1990Smith, Carter. Everyday Life, a Source Book on Colonial America: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1991Zeinert, Karen. Those Amazing Women of World War II: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1994