This collection of essays studies political writings by women from 1400 to 1800, and moves beyond the much more common discussion of women's literary works, political roles, or the operation of gender in politics generally. The book has a novel, dual purpose: to focus on women's political writings during a period when women were discouraged from expressing political thoughts, and to analyze how the intellectual and social institutions of the age directed both women's political (or nonpolitical) existence and their ability to express, and to have heard by others, their political opinions.