Synopsis To ask the question whether gender is caused by biological destiny or simply by social conditioning is to forget the fact that to be and to become woman signifies the construction of a feminine civil identity, i.e., of a culture which corresponds to a specific body, to a specific geneology, to a way of loving and giving birth and to a way of desiring and thinking.History of women and feminism reveals that women were affected by racial, religious, political, demographic, socio-economic and ethno-cultural developments shaping society as a whole, e.g., abolition of slavery, industrialization, urbanization, mass immigration, the rise of consumer culture and social upheavals. How these affected feminism in different parts of the world is elaborately dealt with in the present book.The book will serve as useful source on international feminism and history of women to students, teachers and readers.