A few book reccomendations...

My Women's American history class has been very illuminating, and has especially made me grateful for the position of equality with men I hold in modern society.  Some of the books that we have read include Charlotte Temple, by Susanna Rowson.  This book has been around since the 1790's so you feel like you're getting right to the source of women's 18th century thoughts.  I also have been reading No Small Courage, by Nancy Cott, which has essentially "caught me up" on women's American history.  (Many of my classmates are History majors so I was feeling a little behind.)  Cott is extremely thorough and explores the lives of all groups: European, African and Native American.

I will say though, that I have thought about women's "progress" and I have found pieces of it to be damaging to both sexes.  Women now have the burden of child-bearing and have lost the option to stay at home and take care of their children without risking poverty.  Men tread a fine line between being expected to provide for a wife an family and being accused of male-chauvinism and patriarchy.  It seems as though a new kind of partnership with equally shared roles of providing financial stability and childcare is the only way for a modern couple to survive today's demands on family happiness.