The most famous Revolutionary claim for women’s rights was penned by Abigail Adams in 1776 when she warned her husband, John, that “if particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion [sic], and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.” Adams and other elite women sought a more public voice following the Revolution as well. Only in New Jersey could women—widowed or single, property-owning women—vote, and many cast ballots in state and local elections by the early nineteenth century.

The vast majority of women, however, could shape political decisions only by influencing their husbands, sons, and brothers. Fortunately, many leaders of the early Republic viewed virtuous wives and mothers as necessary to the development of a strong nation. In 1787 Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, published his Essay on Female Education. He believed that women could best shape political ideas and relations by “instructing their sons in principles of liberty and government” and rewarding husbands engaged in public service with “approbation and applause.” To prepare young women for this enhanced domestic role, Rush suggested educating them in literature, music, composition, geography, history, and bookkeeping.

A more radical approach to women’s education was presented by Judith Sargent Murray. Murray argued that “girls should be enabled to procure for themselves the necessaries of life; independence should be placed within their grasp.” In addition to such practical instruction, Murray also advocated an education for girls that included science, mathematics, Latin, and Greek. She argued that at age two, boys and girls were intellectually equal. But from then on, “the one is taught to aspire, and the other is early confined and limited.” A few American women in the late eighteenth century did receive broad educations, and some ran successful businesses; wrote plays, poems, and histories; and established urban salons where women and men discussed the issues of the day. In 1789 Massachusetts became the first state to institute free elementary education for all children, and female academies also multiplied in this period. Still, most girls’ education was focused on preparing them for domesticity, and most women wielded what influence they had as an extension of their domestic responsibilities.

While women’s influence was praised in the post-Revolutionary era, state laws rarely expanded women’s rights. All states limited women’s economic autonomy, although a few allowed married women to enter into business. Divorce was also legalized in many states but was still available only to the wealthy and well connected. Meanwhile women were excluded from juries and legal training and with rare exceptions from voting rights.

African American and Indian women lived under even more severe restraints than white women did. By the 1790s, the number of enslaved women began to increase rapidly once again. Even black women who gained their freedom could find jobs only as domestic servants or agricultural workers. Indian women also faced a difficult future. Years of warfare had enhanced men’s role as warriors and diplomats while restricting women’s political influence. Furthermore, American officials and missionaries encouraged Indians to embrace gender roles that mirrored those of Anglo-American culture by giving men hoes and women spinning wheels. When forced to move farther west, Indian women also lost political and economic authority that was linked to their traditional control over land, crops, and households.