hardworking, determined women found unique opportunities. social, political, economic opportunities to become more equal to men by acting more as equals. all of these white, black and asian women were new to the west, but some of them and some of them native american and hispanic women they displaced also came to personify what was called the new woman. these new women rejected the 19th century s self sacrificing domesticity and anticipated the early 20th century s more liberated model of womanhood, based on the kind of independent, self-fulfilling way of life traditionally limited to men. appreciating women s experience in the west requires understanding something about their position in larger american society, which was terrible. by age-old law and custom, they were citizens in name only. they had no official place in civic life and very few legal rights. according to americas version of english common law, a married woman, a wife, became a , who was covered by or off