In this original work, the Mexican political philosopher, Maria Pia Lara, develops a new approach to public sphere theory and a novel understanding of the history of the feminist struggle. When dominated groups create publicly-oriented social movements, she argues, they seek to frame their demands in compelling narrative forms. Through these new tales, they can become, for the first time, active subjects in their own stories.

In making her argument, Lara examines a very wide range of women's narratives: autobiographies of eighteenth-century salonnieres, the novels of Jane Austen, the writings of contemporary women activists, and the portrayal of women in television and film.