Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735", American Quarterly, 1976
Ulrich observed that women remembered for their virtue left few traces in the records. Later she wrote a book that took the phrase as its title.
the myth (Eleanor Roosevelt): The sentence began as a dry remark in a scholarly article on Puritan funeral sermons. After it appeared on T-shirts and mugs it was credited to Roosevelt, Monroe and others, but the historian herself wrote it.
Source: Wikiquote