There are many factors that can be analyzed in order to understand early colonial America -- the era’s growth of trade, its religious practices, its medicinal practices, or its colonists’ interpersonal and professional relationships with one another. In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s monograph, A Midwife’s Tale, Martha Ballard’s diary explores all of these factors. One crucial factor of understanding colonial America is through understanding the gender roles of colonial women and their influences on the colonies. Although women were seen as insignificant in colonial America, nevertheless Ulrich’s monograph is important to our comprehension of the gender roles of the era because it demonstrates how women’s roles in society, as well as their relationships
