Stories of remarkable women who devoted their lives to the cause of women's physical liberation are told in this volume.

All the freedom of the boy: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 19th-century architect of women's rights, Roberta J. Park; a martyr for modernity: Qiu Jin, feminist, warrior revolutionary, Fan Hong and J. A. Mangan; a militant madonna: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, feminism and physical culture, Patricia Vertinsky; a lifetime of campaigning: Ettie Rout, emancipationist beyond the pale, Jane Tolerton; breaking bounds, Alice Profe, radical and emancipationist, Gertrud Pfister; at the heart of a new profession: Margaret Stansfeld, a radical English educationalist, Richard Smart; Alexandrine Gibb in no man's land of sport, M Ann Hall; glittering icin of fascist femininity: Trebisonda Ondina Valla, Gigliola Gori; ignoring taboos: Maria Lenk, Latin American inspirationalist, Sebastiao Votre and Ludmila Mourao; in pursuit of empowerment: Sensei Nellie Kleinsmidt and gender challenges in South Africa, Denise E.M. Jones; epilogue: prospects for the new millennium - women, emancipation and the body, J.A. Mangan.