The essays in this collection look at some of the images and categories which have shaped Western women’s sense of themselves in the twentieth century. The approach of the collection is interdisciplinary, bringing together the perspectives of literary criticism, social history and linguistics. Its focus is international, with contributions on Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Canada. The collection shows both the similarity and the diversity of women’s experience in a world determined by patriarchal assumptions, where women’s only hope of change lies in developing a determination of their own.