Overview of women’s role and place in western Europe, from the beginning of the eighteenth century until the twentieth century. Chapters focus on women's work, sexuality, the family, education and training, religion, political participation, war and peace, popular culture and leisure, and women as producers and consumers of art. The interaction between women, ideology and female agency, the way women engaged with patriarchal and gendered structures and systems, and the way women carved out their identities and spaces within these informs each of the studies.
This publication gives attention to the foundational contributions of men to the creation of modern British feminism. Focusing on the revolutionary 1790s, the book introduces several dozen male reformers who insisted that women's emancipation would be key to the establishment of a truly just and rational society. These men proposed educational reforms, assisted women writers into print, and used their training in religion, medicine, history, and the law to challenge common assumptions about women's legal and political entitlements.