In Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World, Mary Beth Norton traces the countercurrents that led to women’s relegation to the private sphere of the family and exclusion from public commentary on political events. Starting with the assumption in the early seventeenth century that a woman has a place as a state and political actor if she has high status, Norton proceeds to show how initially subtle shifts in perceptions of women’s actions alter women’s claims to political commentary. Using a variety of historical events and texts on both sides of the Atlantic from 1640-1760, Norton crafts a nuanced argument regarding the emergence of a gendered public/private binary and rhetorical femininity.