This book illustrates the social, cultural, legal and, political conditions that European women have faced from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Gisela Bock is Professor of Western European History at the Free University of Berlin. She has published numerous books and articles on the history of women, including studies on gender relations in the modern welfare states, female poverty, women under National Socialism, and the European debates on gender relations.

Allison Brown has been a freelance translator of scholarly books and essays, largely in the fields of history and the social and political sciences, especially women's and cultural studies, since 1988. She has studied linguistics and German studies, and has an M.A. in translation science.