Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 25 minutes ago
Women Before the American Revolution, by Professor Rosemarie Zagarri. This short video explores the limited rights of women prior to the American Revolution. According to the idea of femme covert, women were legally and politically subservient to their husbands. Married women could not own property and all women were considered irrelevant to the political sphere. Professor Rosemarie Zagarri notes that 80% of the freemen in the colonies could vote (as compared to 20% in Great Britain), but suffrage was still limited to men.
Professor Rosemarie Zagarri is a University Professor and professor of history at George Mason University. Dr. 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.
Women Before the American Revolution, by Professor Rosemarie Zagarri. This short video explores the limited rights of women prior to the American Revolution. According to the idea of femme covert, women were legally and politically subservient to their husbands. Married women could not own property and all women were considered irrelevant to the political sphere. Professor Rosemarie Zagarri notes that 80% of the freemen in the colonies could vote (as compared to 20% in Great Britain), but suffrage was still limited to men.
Professor Rosemarie Zagarri is a University Professor and professor of history at George Mason University. Dr. 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.
