Divided Lives American Women in the Twentieth Century

Since its publication more than a decade ago, Divided Lives has become a classic introductory text to the history of women in the twentieth century. Providing a complete perspective of the era, Rosalind Rosenberg deftly explores women's experiences as they worked to win personal autonomy, sexual freedom, economic independence, and legal rights. Examining women's lives in the larger context of U.S. social and political history, Rosenberg shows how American habits of federalism, racial and ethnic diversity, geographic mobility, and relative abundance have both aided and hindered women's strides toward equality. With an updated preface and a new chapter and bibliographic essay reflecting the past fifteen years of history and recent scholarship, Divided Lives remains a landmark study of the leaders, goals, and setbacks of the women's movement in the last century. Book jacket.

Rosalind Rosenberg is a professor of history at Barnard College and the author of Beyond Separate Spheres: Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism and Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think About Sex and Politics.