Prominent activists, academics, politicians, journalists, mothers, and daughters celebrate the indomitable spirit of the American woman and reflect on what democracy means to women's lives.

NANCY M. NEUMAN is former president of the League of Women Voters and author of The League of Women Voters in Perspective 1920-1995 (1994). A lecturer and writer on women in politics and public policy, she has been a distinguished visiting professor at Washington and Jefferson College, Bucknell University, and Pomona College.