I’m looking into women’s history in Maryland, particularly women’s roles during the settlement period/colonial period. Does anyone know good sources to consult? I’m looking for books, websites, etc. Honestly anything!
I don't have any recommendations for Maryland-specific books (maybe because of the presses I watch, maybe because New England and Virginia take up all the air in the room), but I can give you some relevant titles?
Women's Roles in Eighteenth-Century America by Merril D. Smith is a good overview of the position of women during this time period. It's not from an academic press and it is rather general, but it is reputable and footnoted.
Beyond the Household: Women's Place in the Early South, 1700-1835 by Cynthia A. Kierner: an academic text (Cornell University Press) that looks at the changes that occurred in the conception of women's roles. This is the period when the "cult of domesticity" and "cult of refinement" were developed, and women's lives outside the home changed a great deal. Focuses specifically on Virginia and the Carolinas. A similar one is Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World by Mary Beth Norton (although I find her to be a bit dry).
The Widows' Might: Widowhood and Gender in Early British America by Vivian Bruce Conger: this is comparably narrow in scope as it looks specifically at the experience of widowhood - how people looked at widows who remarried, how they managed their households or joined new ones, how they provided for themselves, etc. - but it also looks at all of the colonies, including Maryland!
One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit by Michelle Marchetti Coughlin: this is specifically about a woman from Connecticut, which is a very different culture from Maryland, but it is focused on a woman's actual diaries from 1688 to 1749, which is ... a pretty big deal, if you are interested in women's experiences! And as the text says,
Because Mehetabel Chandler Coit shared many of her contemporaries’ personal experiences, beliefs, and points of view, this attempt to re-create her world also illuminates the lives of countless other women of her time and place who left behind no written record — or whose record we have yet to discover.