Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 26 minutes ago
Women and Early American Constitutionalism, by Professor Rosemarie Zagarri, University Professor and Professor of History at George Mason University. Dr. Zagarri explores the evolution of women’s constitutional rights. Prior to the Revolution, women were legally and politically subservient to their husbands, but women in post-revolutionary America came to be seen as intellectual beings responsible for promoting the public good. Dr. Zagarri notes that the original Constitution was gender-neutral and women shared many rights enjoyed by men, while other rights evolved over time in a checkerboard fashion.
Professor Zagarri is the author of Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (2007), The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776-1850 (1987), and A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution (1995), and the editor of David Humphreys' "Life of General Washington" with George Washington's "Remarks" (1991).
Professor Zagarri has been a past professor at the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, "Summer Institute on the Constitution" held annually on the campus of Georgetown University.
American History Videos are sponsored by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. These videos are offered to help teachers, students and the general public learn more about America's founding and the Constitution of the United States. www.jamesmadison.gov.
0:00 Intro
2:01 The Stamp Act crisis
7:12 Republican Motherhood
12:56 New Jersey
17:01 Female politicians
19:57 Women as citizens
Women and Early American Constitutionalism, by Professor Rosemarie Zagarri, University Professor and Professor of History at George Mason University. Dr. Zagarri explores the evolution of women’s constitutional rights. Prior to the Revolution, women were legally and politically subservient to their husbands, but women in post-revolutionary America came to be seen as intellectual beings responsible for promoting the public good. Dr. Zagarri notes that the original Constitution was gender-neutral and women shared many rights enjoyed by men, while other rights evolved over time in a checkerboard fashion.
Professor Zagarri is the author of Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (2007), The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776-1850 (1987), and A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution (1995), and the editor of David Humphreys' "Life of General Washington" with George Washington's "Remarks" (1991).
Professor Zagarri has been a past professor at the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, "Summer Institute on the Constitution" held annually on the campus of Georgetown University.
American History Videos are sponsored by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. These videos are offered to help teachers, students and the general public learn more about America's founding and the Constitution of the United States. www.jamesmadison.gov.
0:00 Intro
2:01 The Stamp Act crisis
7:12 Republican Motherhood
12:56 New Jersey
17:01 Female politicians
19:57 Women as citizens
