Books in the Women in Culture & Society Series WCS series

A contemporary of Shakespeare and Monteverdi, and a colleague of Galileo and Artemisia Gentileschi at the Medici court, Francesca Caccini was a dominant figure of musical life there. This book reveals how this composer established a professional musical career at a time when virtually no other women were able to achieve comparable success.

Attempting to define the exotic, this text focuses on the shifting relations between popular portrayals of exotic "others" and the practice of anthropology, seeking to cast light on gender, race and the public sphere in America's history.

A study of the implications of "feeding the family" from the perspective of those who do that work. Drawing from interviews conducted in 1982-83 in a diverse group of American households, DeVault reveals the effort and skill behind the "invisible" work of shopping, cooking, and serving meals.

This study explores the influential literary texts of the archaic and classical periods ranging from epic and didactic poetry to the theatrical productions of tragedy and comedy in 5th-century Athens. The workings of gender as a factor in Greek social, religious and cultural practices are explored.

This exploration of the work of nurses and other caregivers in nursing homes is set in the context of wider political, economic and cultural forces that influence, both positively and negatively, the quality of care for America's elderly.

The Caribbean "market woman" is ingrained in the popular imagination as the archetype of black womanhood. Challenging this stereotype, this work offers a complex picture by documenting the history of independent international traders who travel abroad to import and export an array of consumer goods sold in the public markets of Kingston, Jamaica.

The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license. What then to make of the honest courtesan, who recast virtue as intellectual integrity. Veronico Franco was such a woman and this text reveals in her writing a passionate support for defedeless women.

The essays in this volume explore how feminist theory has had a direct impact on research in the biological and social sciences, in medicine, and in technology, often providing the impetus for fundamentally changing the theoretical underpinnings and practices of such research.

This work shows how women between the 12th and 16th centuries were able to carve out areas of influence by exploiting the institutional church and by manipulating religious precepts. Contributors argue that women's participation in religious life offered them access to power in all its forms.

Offers a comprehensive assessment of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's complicated feminism by exploring the renowned writer's theories of sexuality and evolutionary analyses of androcentric, or male-dominated, culture.

Elsie Clews Parsons was a pioneering feminist, eminent anthropologist and ardent social critic who challenged Americans to develop flexible and dynamic gender, family and social arrangements. This biography examines the connections linking Parsons' intellectual commitments to her life experience.

These posthumous essays by Joan Kelly, a founder of women's studies, represent a profound synthesis of feminist theory and historical analysis and require a realignment of perspectives on women in society from the Middle Ages to the present.

This text presents eight Nigerian women writers and proposes a vernacular theory based on their work. Flora Nwapa, Adaora Lily Ulasi, Buchi Emecheta are some of the writers included. The importance of children and community in the literary tradition of African womanism is assessed.

Focusing on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Frances Burney and Jane Austen, this book examines the relationships between politics, gender and feeling. It treats the qualities that were once seen to mar their work as strategies of representation during a time of political change.