Women's Attempt for Independence in a Man's World As thefirst Europeans to cross the Atlantic into a New World, they brought with them conventions about family life that endured long after their migration.Their children then inherited these beliefs and continued to practice in what they believed to be the appropriate role of each family member.In 1776, in what was considered to be the family of the New World, these roles and expectations of what a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, and children should be and do were much like those of their ancestors.Within these conventions, women had only one role in society, which was to be a constant caretaker.

Many women, although agreeing their most important role was to be a wife and mother, sought the right to exemplify what it meant to be an independent American woman. Although not anticipated to be more than an exclusive observer and devotee of her husband's public career, Abigail Adams was one of thefirst women to seek glorification of the revolutionary era of women.At that time the only political existence wives and daughters experienced was through their relations with men.Abigail sought to break the barrier of women simply standing outside of the political process.Through her intelligence and power, Abigail spoke for the women who were unable to express their own feelings due to lack of supremacy. She made her most famous request to her husband, John Adams, in creating the new government.She pleaded to him, "Do not place such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands" (pg.

10).Abigail believed that not a single individual could be trusted to exercise unlimited power over another, not even a husband over a wife. She considered women to be intellectual equals of men and suggested women gain similar rights to those of men.Abigail was not suggesting that women wanted to gain complete control and have a reversal of hierarchy. .

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