A history of their own : women in Europe from prehistory to the present / Bonnie S. Anderson, Judith P. Zinsser.

New York : Oxford University Press, 2000.

2 volumes, plates : illustrations ; 21 cm

Rev. ed.

V.1: I. Traditions inherited: attitudes about women from the centuries before 800 A.D. : 1. Buried traditions: the question of origins -- 2. Inherited traditions: the principal influences -- 3. Traditions subordinating women -- 4. Traditions empowering women -- 5. The effects of Christianity. -- II. Women of the fields: sustaining the generations : 1. The constants of the peasant women's world: the ninth to the twentieth centuries -- 2. Sustaining the generations -- 3. The extraordinary -- 4. What remains of the peasant woman's world. -- III. Women of the churches: the power of the faithful : 1. The patterns of power and limitation: the tenth to the seventeenth centuries -- 2. Authority within the institutional church -- 3. Authority outside the institutional church -- 4. Authority given and taken away: the Protestant and Catholic Reformations -- 5. Traditional images redrawn -- 6. The legacy of the Protestant Reformation. -- IV. Women of the castles and manors: custodians of land and lineage : 1. From warrior's life to noblewomen: the ninth to the seventeenth centuries -- 2. Constants of the noblewoman's life -- 3. Power and vulnerability -- 4. The new flowering of ancient traditions. -- V. Women of the walled towns: providers and partners : 1. The townswoman's daily life: the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries -- 2. Dangers and remedies -- 3. The world of commercial capitalism: the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries -- 4. The invisible and visible bonds of misogyny.

V.2: VI. Women of the courts: rulers, patrons, and attendants : 1. The world of absolute monarchs from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries -- 2. The life of the courtier -- 3. The traditional life in a grand setting: wife and queen consort -- 4. Women rulers -- 5. New opportunities -- 6. The legacies of Renaissance Humanism and the scientific revolution. -- VII. Women of the salons and parlors: ladies, housewives, and professionals : 1. Women in the salons -- 2. Women in the parlors -- 3. Leaving the parlors -- 4. Opportunities and limits: change and tradition in the twentieth century. -- VIII. Women of the cities: mothers, workers, and revolutionaries : 1. Family life -- 2. Earning income -- 3. Revolutions and reforms -- 4. Continuity and change: women in World War II and after. -- IX. Traditions rejected: a history of feminism in Europe : 1. Feminism in Europe -- 2. Asserting women's humanity: early European feminists -- 3. Asserting women's legal and political equality: equal rights movements in Europe -- 4. Feminist socialism in Europe -- 5. The women's liberation movement.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.