This discussion of the division's resources centers around six areas of strength both in the Library's rare collections and for many aspects of women's history:

• Women's domestic and family roles, including cooking and medicine, are documented in books, magazines and newspapers published for women, and the extensive children's book collection.
• Religion and spirituality can be studied in many early imprints, including sermons and captivity narratives.
• Reform movements, for which the Library's collections are particularly strong in abolition and suffrage.
• Women's role in popular culture is documented as both creators and subject of mass culture.
• Women as collectors of traditional rare book collections, including Americana and cookery, as well as compilers of more humble scrapbooks.
• Literary works