ABSTRACT
America has long seen itself and been seen as a male undertaking. The archetypal American, whether a Puritan settler, a revolutionary Patriot, a Robber Baron, cowboy or twentieth-century corporate wheeler-dealer, has almost always been portrayed as male. American history has similarly been seen through male eyes. The American literary canon has also frequently been defined as masculine, sometimes aggressively anti-feminine, with women, if they are featured at all, being marginalised. The same may be said for other cultural forms. In the last few decades, however, prompted in large part by the women's movement of the late 1960s, scholars have dramatically revised their understanding of both American history and culture. Alongside a new inclusiveness that has encompassed race, class and ethnicity in the study of both history and cultural forms, gender has become an important lens through which to examine America. As a consequence, far from simply writing women back into the historical and literary culture of America, scholars have begun to consider what difference it makes to put gender at the centre of their studies.
