Freeing the Female Body

This collection records the bravery of these forgotten inspirational figures whose determination challenged and overcame convention, custom and prejudice to free women from the ranks of the sexualized, controlled and oppressed.

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.