This anthology brings together extracts from a wide variety of seventeenth-century sources to illustrate the ways in which the cultural notion of `woman' was then constructed. Although the dominant ideology was unquestionably patriarchal, and many of its manifestations were misogynistic and determined to keep women in wheir place, it was also diverse, self-questioning, contradictory and committed to loving rather than authoritarian relations between the sexes.

The chapters are helpfully arranged by topics and each chapter opens with anintroduction which highlights the major issues and supplies a context for the extracts.

This fascinating collection of opinions from both men and women enables informed discussion of the key issues of gender roles, sexuality and identity in the seventeenth century.