American Women presents "women as a force in history." Paying homage to historian Mary Ritter Beard's pathbreaking scholarship from the 1930s and 1940s, this conceptual framework highlights the contributions, recognized and unrecognized, that women have made to the American experience. Without downplaying the historical constraints and barriers blocking women's advancement, Ware's narrative emphasizes women as active agents rather than passive victims in a variety of contexts throughout U.S. history.

The goal of American Women is to give the reader familiarity with the main currents and themes of American history through engagement with the specific history of its women. This dual focus is necessary because it is impossible to write about women in isolation from men or unaffected by broader events and trends. And yet women's stories link to larger themes at the same time they often challenge them. With women's stories fully integrated into the broader national story, the end result is a richer understanding of American history in all its complexity, including its transnational and global dimensions.