* An extensive survey of the history of women around the world, their interaction with men, and the role of gender in shaping human behavior over thousands of years. * Discusses family history, the history of the body and sexuality, and cultural history alongside women's history and gender history.

List of Plates. Contributors. Introduction: Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Union College; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). Part I. Thematic Essays on Gender Issues in World History:. 1. Sexuality: Robert A. Nye (Oregon State University). 2. Gender and Labor in World History: Laura Levine Frader (Northeastern University). 3. Structures and Meanings in a Gendered Family History: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). 4. Religion and Gender: Embedded Patterns, Interwoven Frameworks: Ursula King (University of Bristol). 5. Gender Rules: Law and Politics: Susan Kinsley Kent (University of Colorado, Boulder). 6. Race, Gender, and other Differences in Feminist Theory: Deirdre Keenan (Carroll College). 7. Gender and Education Before and After Mass Schooling: Pavla Miller (RMIT in Melbourne). 8. How Images Got Their Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in the Visual Arts: Mary D. Sheriff (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). 9. Revolution, Nationalism, and Anti-Imperialism: Temma Kaplan (Rutgers University). 10. Feminist Movements: Gender and Sexual Equality: Barbara Winslow (Brooklyn College of the City University of New York). Part II: Chronological and Geographical Essays:. Prehistory. 11. Gender in the Formation of the Earliest Human Societies: Marcia-Anne Dobres (University of California, Berkeley). Classical and Post-Classical Societies (2000 BCE-1400 CE). 12. Women in the Middle East, 8000 BCE to 1700 CE: Guity Nashat (University of Illinois at Chicago). 13. Gendered Themes in Early African History: David Schoenbrun (Northwestern University). 14. Confucian Complexities: China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam: Vivian-Lee Nyitray (University of California, Riverside). 15. Early Western Civilization Under the Sign of Gender: Europe and the Mediterranean, 40000 BCE to 1400 CE: Paul Halsall (University of North Florida). 16. Gender in the Ancient Americas: From Earliest Villages to European Colonization: Rosemary A. Joyce (University of California, Berkeley). Gender and the Development of Modern Society (1400-1750). 17. Gender History, Southeast Asia, and the "World Regions Framework": Barbara Watson Andaya (University of Hawai'i). 18. Did Gender have a Renaissance? Exclusions and Traditions in Early Modern Western Europe: Julie Hardwick (University of Texas at Austin). 19. Self, Society, and Gender in Early Modern Russia and Eastern Europe: Nancy Shields Kollman (Stanford University). 20. A New World Engendered: The Making of the Iberian Transatlantic Empires: Verena Stolcke (Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona). Gender and the Modern World (1750-1920). 21. Rescued from Obscurity: Contributions and Challenges in Writing the History of Gender in the Middle East and North Africa: Judith Tucker (Georgetown University). 22. Gender, Women, and the Power in Africa, 1750-1914: Marcia Wright (Columbia University). 23. Clash of Cultures: Gender and Colonialism in South and Southeast Asia: Nupur Chaudhuri (Texas Southern University). 24. From Private to Public Patriarchy: Women, Labor, and the State of East Asia, 1600-1919: Anne Walthall (University of California, Irvine). 25. Gender in the Formation of European Power, 1750-1914: Deborah Valenze (Barnard College, Columbia University). 26. Latin America and the Caribbean: Sonya Lipsett-Rivera (Carleton University). 27. North America from North of the 49th Parallel: Linda Kealey (University of New Brunswick). Gender in the Contemporary World (1920-2003). 28. Frameworks of Gender: Feminism and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Asia: Barbara Molony (Santa Clara University). 29. Women and Gender Roles in Africa Since 1918: Sean Redding (Amherst College). 30. Continuities Amid Change: Gender Ideas and Arrangements in Twentieth-Century Russia and Eastern Europe: Barbara Evans Clements (The University of Akron). 31. Reform and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Latin America and the Caribbean: Susan K. Besse (City College of New York and the Graduate Center, CUNY). 32. Equality and Difference in the Twentieth-Century West: North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand: Charles Sowerwine with Patricia Grimshaw (University of Melbourne; University of Melbourne). Bibliography. Index