The period between the Civil War and the turn of the century was a time of great social upheaval in the United States. Lured by the promises of industrialization, much of the rural population moved to the cities, but those who remained in the countryside were isolated from the rapid changes in American society. Women found themselves torn between the battle for women's rights being hotly debated in the cities and the traditional role of homemaker, mother, and helper that was the norm in rural areas.

In A Woman's Place, Norton Juster brings this turbulent period of American history to life using a broad sampling of articles, letters, poems, and essays taken from the popular literature of the time. While these publications recognized the hardship that characterized the lives of their readers, they upheld the idealized vision of the farmer's wife. It is this historical conflict between the independent woman and the traditional female role that makes A Woman's Place important reading today.