American Revolution How Did the American Revolution Impact Women

Many issues are difficult to research in history because there is only a limited amount of documentation that is available. Much of historical documentation often focuses on the people with exceptional positions in society that have influenced the course of history. As a result there is a limited amount of material that focuses on the daily lives of ordinary people as well as those who have been marginalized in socioeconomic status. Thus historians have to sometimes be creative to find records that can provide insights. The role of women in the American Revolution and its influence on women's suffrage are great examples of difficult topics to research.

This paper will compare two different approaches to understanding issues that are difficult to research. One interesting historical fact is that New Jersey was one of the pioneers on the issue of women's suffrage as it did not specify gender as a basis for representation in the state's constitution. While other state's made provisions that specified gender a prerequisite for voting and political participation, in 1776 New Jersey ignored any gender barriers in its suffrage clause in its constitution (Klinghoffer...

This led to a situation in which women were able to participate in the political system to a much greater extent than other states. However, this period was brief and ended in 1807 when the women were disenfranchised from the system and this participation is documented and can offer historical insights into the life of women in the period.
Another interesting approach to providing information on women and family life in the colonial era in the late eighteenth-century American family life has been gained by considering the records of the loyalist after the war. Among the 3,225 loyalists who presented claims to the British government after the war were 468 American refugee women and the documents contain many private letters and other evidence that offer verbatim records of different female perspectives (Norton, 1976). These documents were primarily used to study opinions of loyalists, however their more indirect value to studying the female perspective in America was largely ignored until fairly recently.

Many of the records that were produced by these means deal with the women's statement of family affairs such as record keeping and economic household duties. Many of the records that were presented to the…