Women Theorists on Society and Politics brings together scarce, previously unpublished and newly translated excerpts from works by such women theorists as Emilie du Chatelet, Germaine de Stael, Catharine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft, Flora Tristan, Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, Beatrice Webb and Jane Addams. It focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers, but also includes some selections from as early as the Renaissance and late seventeenth century.

Introductions to the material, biographical background and secondary sources enhance this collection. Women Theorists on Society and Politics provides important theory on standard topics and a balance to the anthologies of feminist writing now more commonly available.