John Jay Homestead State Historic Site's; current special exhibition, "Am I Not Myself a Woman?'" The First Generations of Jay Women at Bedford, is presently on view in the museum's Back Parlor Gallery. It focuses on women's lives in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, as exemplified by the first two generations of Jay women who lived at John Jay Homestead. This includes John Jay's wife, Sarah Livingston Jay, her three daughters, Maria, Ann, and Sarah Louisa, and her daughter-in-law, Augusta McVickar Jay. The exhibition examines the roles and responsibilities women had to fulfill during these years, as wives, daughters, mothers, household managers, hostesses, caregivers to the sick, cooks, seamstresses, and so on. Women's lack of a right to vote, unfavorable property laws for wives, and related issues are also explored. The exhibit looks at the slow growth of women's rights, the opportunities women had for education, and the major role religion held for them as a coping mechanism.

The stories of the Jay women, from the glamour of Sarah Jay's role as New York City's leading hostess in the 1780s to the sacrifices made by her daughters to care for their families, plus the activities that filled these women's daily lives, exemplify the responsibilities and aspirations women had in the early years of the American republic. Artifacts from John Jay Homestead's historic collection are prominently displayed, including painted and sculpted portraits of the Jay women, a pair of sewing tables believed to have purchased for Maria and Ann Jay, family jewelry, Maria Jay's book of pressed flowers, Augusta Jay's prayer book, costume items, and Sarah Jay's grandmother's early 18th-century silver teapot.

The exhibit can be viewed both as part of a regular tour of the historic house, and by itself, during special gallery hours held on Sundays from noon to 2:00, and on Mondays from 10:00 to noon.