Moving chronologically from the colonial period to the present, this collection of seventeen biographical essays provides a window into the social, cultural, and geographic milieu of women's lives in the state. The contributors look at ways in which the women they profile either abided by prevailing gender norms or negotiated new models of behaviour for themselves and other women.

Shannon Frystak (Editor)
SHANNON FRYSTAK is an associate professor of history at East Stroudsburg University and author of Our Minds on Freedom: Women and the Struggle for Black Equality in Louisiana, 1924-1967.

Mary Farmer-Kaiser (Editor)
MARY FARMER-KAISER is a professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and author of Freedwomen and the Freedmen's Bureau: Race, Gender, and Public Policy in the Age of Emancipation.