Includes bibliographical references (pages 343-360) and index.

Foreword: Circumstances and winners change / by Doris Betts -- Preface / by Elizabeth F. Buford -- pt. I. Prehistory through the eighteenth century. The first settlers of this land: Native American women ; Nanye'hi/Nancy Ward, 1738?-1822 ; The most industrious sex in that place: women on the Carolina frontier, 1587-1729 ; A pattern of industry: women from the Colonial to Republican eras ; Rebecca Bryan Boone, 1729-1813 ; Ann Matthews Floyd Jessop, 1738-1822 ; Moravian women, 1753-1836 ; The bondswomen of Somerset Place, 1786-1860 -- pt. II. The nineteenth century through Reconstruction. A hardier mold: women, family, and society, 1800-1860 ; The labor of her own hands: women and work, 1800-1860 ; Women entered the struggle: war, emancipation, and Reconstruction, 1860-1876 ; Harriet Jacobs, ca. 1813-1897 ; Catherine Devereux Edmondston, 1823-1875 ; Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 1825-1908 ; Rhoda Strong Lowry, 1849-1909 -- pt. III. The task that is ours: women, work, and advocacy, 1877-1910. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, 1858-1964 ; Sallie Southall Cotten, 1846-1929 ; Julia Westall Wolfe, 1860-1945 ; More was expected of us: women making a difference, 1910-1941 ; Charlotte Hawkins Brown, 1883-1961 ; Jane Simpson McKimmon, 1867-1957 ; Olive Dame Campbell, 1882-1954 ; Gertrude Weil, 1879-1971 ; Ella May Wiggins, 1900-1929 ; Mary Martin Sloop, 1873-1962 ; Turning point or temporary gain: women and World War II, 1941-1945 ; Minnie Evans, 1892-1987 ; Elizabeth Lawrence, 1904-1985 ; Pauli Murray, 1910-1985 ; Gladys Avery Tillett, 1893-1984 -- Epilogue.