This lecture investigates the historical absence of women from traditional academic narratives and proposes a framework for integrating gender into the study of history. Carl N. Degler, a prominent historian of American social life, utilizes his expertise in the evolution of the American family and gender roles to critique the male-centric focus of historical scholarship. He argues that the inclusion of women is not merely an additive process but a fundamental shift that requires re-evaluating the structures of social and political history. The text serves as a foundational inquiry into how historians can reconstruct the past to account for the experiences of half the human population.

Scholars recognize this lecture as a significant early contribution to the formalization of women's history within the university curriculum. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which reflects the formal standards of mid-1970s Oxford lecture series.