This volume represents an important contribution to the growing field of feminist criticism and theory in relation to Renaissance texts. As well as offering fresh, theoretically inspired readings of women writers, it also brings new material to light, in some cases offering the first major critical discussion of the works of such lesser-known writers as Dionys Fitzherbert.

Thematically, the essays reflect a variety of perspectives. Contributors examine the material constraints on the expression of women's voices in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, illustrating both the difficulties with which the women were faced and their capacity to overcome them. Attention is paid to issues of gender in representation, with chapters on the use of female voices in male-authored texts and the different ways in which the body is portrayed by male and female writers.

Finally, women's voices are placed in a religious and political context, with chapters considering texts by historically significant male writers such as Knox and Bunyan.