The Making of Americans then turns from the center of the family structure to its margin. Stein reframes women into four distinct categories to criticize the role that subservient role women are forced to play in American families. Though women could be seen as the center of a family due to the work they put in to maintaining a family, society uses gender to force women to the margin. Stein explains, “Many kinds of all these women were strong to bear many children” (1740). Stein’s four categories all center on that specific type of strength. The first woman was strong to lead her children, and the second strong to suffer with them (Stein 1740). The third would suffer for her children, but she suffered sadly (Stein 1740). The third was strong
