In her introduction, Sarah Barringer Gordon argues that women in the nineteenth century tolerated political instability only because of a presumption of marital stability. Stephanie McCurry examines the ethics of protection in the Confederacy as the basis for Southern loyalty and, ironically, for women's political demands during the Civil War. Catherine Allgor looks at the role of elite women, securing patronage for their husbands in early Washington while ostensibly protecting them from its corrupting influence. Alison M. Parker explores the radical political thought of Frances Wright and the implications of reactions to her egalitarianism.

The difficulties and persistence of partisan political work by women in the late antebellum period underlie Janet L. Coryell's perceptive analysis of Anna Ella Carrol. Through her study of the postwar patronage career of Union spy "Crazy Bet" Van Lew, Elizabeth R. Varon elucidates the strategic advantages of political instability for women and the significance of the cry for women's rights as a threat to the defeated South. In the book's concluding essay, Lori D. Ginzberg analyzes the relationship between structures of formal governance (the ballot) and private governance (marriage) in sustaining women's political marginality.