Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Introduction What is feminism? What is politics? 1. Women's place in society Male dominance or patriarchy? Anatomy as destiny Explanations emphasising culture or ideology Male dominance and the economy Women's place: change and diversity The inevitability of male dominance? 2. Women's political behaviour The extent of women's participation in grass-roots politics Women's political attitudes Determinants of women's political behaviour 3. Women in political elites A minority presence Women in the European Parliament Political parties National governments Unions and other interest organisations Bureaucracies Why so few? Strategies for women? A distinctive contribution? 4. How politics affects women Politics and women's status in Britain Explaining policy towards women: a comparative approach Policies in Sweden The Third World: colonialism, nationalism, and 'development' Policies under state socialism 5. The politics of the women's movement The 'first wave' of feminism The origins of contemporary feminism Women's liberation in the United States Women's liberation in Britain The movement elsewhere A crisis in the women's movement? Movement membership and heterogeneity Deradicalisation The tyranny of structurelessness Finding the right strategy--with the Left? 6. Feminism and policy-making Abortion rights Abortion reform in Britain Abortion reform in the United States Abortion reforms: some comparisons Equal rights policy-making Equal employment policy-making: comparative perspectives Feminism and policy-making in the 1980s Conclusion Notes for further reading Bibliography Index.