History of women in the United States |Part of a series on|
|Part of a series on the| |History of the |United States portal|
This is a history of women in the United States since 1776, and
of the Thirteen Colonies before that. The reliable sources on
the topic were thin before the 1960s. Since then the study of
Women's history has been a major scholarly and popular field,
with many scholarly books and articles, museum exhibits, and
courses in schools and universities. Colonial era  The
experiences of women during the colonial era varied somewhat
from colony to colony, but there were some overall patterns.
Most of the British settlers were from England and Wales, with
smaller numbers from Scotland,and Ireland. Groups of families
settled in New England, while individuals came to the Southern
colonies. The American colonies absorbed the thousands of Dutch
and Swedish settlers. After 1700 most immigrants to Colonial
America arrived as indentured servants—young unmarried men and
women seeking a new life in a much