Women and Revolution in Africa, Asia, and the New World evaluates the effect of political upheaval on the way that women live and on the most basic of social organizations - the family.

The contributors use a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze how women as a class have experienced specific twentieth-century revolutions. They identify the issues that prompted women to participate in the struggles, the roles they played, the contributions they made, and their hopes for better lives for themselves as women in the post-revolutionary society.

In some instances, gender issues were used to mobilize men in support of individuals and parties seeking political power in the new order, and in other cases, attempts by revolutionaries to spearhead changes in gender relations became focal points for counter-revolution. The contributors note why and how women themselves sometimes oppose changes in gender relations, and how that opposition affects post-revolutionary politics.