America's Women

Spanning four centuries of history, America’s Women describes the way women’s lives have been altered by medical advances, social theories about sex and courtship, and ever-changing attitudes toward education, work, and politics. Gail Collins, the editorial page editor at the New York Times, chronicles not only the lives of the famous, but also those of everyday women — their families, careers and personal choices.

From contraception to corsets, and from equal rights to the tyranny of fashion, Collins relates the compelling, heartbreaking, funny and inspirational history of women as they made lives for themselves and their families in a new world.

Gail Collins is the Editor of the Editorial Page at the New York Times — the first woman to hold this position. Before that, she wrote the “Public Interest” column for paper’s Op-Ed page, was a member of the editorial board, and was a columnist for The New York Daily News and New York Newsday. She is the author of Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics.

“Gail Collins’s book is the best survey of American women’s history we have. It is a rich and absorbing story, carried along by humor, deep feeling, and superb historical intelligence.” — Christine Stansell, professor of history, Princeton University, and author of American Moderns