Women have long been active in the struggle for human rights: in the Resistance during World War II; in rebellion against authoritarian governments; and in seeking environmental justice and cultural equality around the world. Yet often their accomplishments have remained unrecognized.

In Women Reshaping Human Rights, ordinary - yet extraordinary - individuals tell their stories. Readers will meet Vera Laska, who joined the Resistance against the Nazis in Czechoslovakia; Dai Qing, who fights the Communist Party's grip upon the government in the People's Republic of China; and Juana Beatrice Gutierrez and the Mothers of East Los Angeles, who challenge drug dealers and toxic polluters threatening their neighborhood.

Professor Marguerite Bouvard provides a complete biography of every activist. The stage is thus set for each individual, who recounts real-life tales of courage that force us to ask what each of us must do in the fight for justice and dignity.