The study of American women has revolutionized the practice of history and our view of America's past. The development of women's history was inspired by the reemergence of feminism and the advent of the new social history in the 1960s and 1970s. Historians initially focused on women's contributions to society and the obstacles encountered by women. Recently, women's history has grown more complex as it has sought to address the effects of gender, class, and race. The prodigious results of this research have encouraged historians to reconceptualize their understanding of our country's heritage, from domestic life to work to politics, and to reformulate basic questions about our modern era.
Hagley Museum and Library's research collections can be used to examine key subjects in American women's history, including women's roles within the family economy, gender and the workplace, domesticity, the culture of consumption, philanthropy, and participation in political reform movements. In a three-year review of its holdings, Hagley identified material pertaining to women in one-quarter of its manuscript collections, as well as considerable documentation in printed and pictorial materials.