The remaking of female identity gets its structural support not only from the capitalist market, but also from the discourse of liberal democracy which has peaked "in theaccelerated phase of globalization, the last third of the twentieth century." Significantly, the conflict between the two value systems of capitalist economy, with its stress on individualism and instrumental rationality, and liberal democracy, with its emphasis on citizenship, democracy, patriotism and human rights, is played out on the woman as its site. Women and the Politics of Violence readers through on interdisciplinary perspective to the politics of this struggle with its varying emphases on women.

The essays included in the collection deal with women and violence in relation to the media, India's partition, religious fundamentalism and the terrain of law.