The Women's Chronology illuminates the effects of history on women - and their role in creating it - like no other available reference. Information once available only in scattered, hard-to-find sources is now at your fingertips in this accessible single volume.

This lively chronicle of causes and effects brings to life the achievements, downfalls, trials, intrigues, discoveries, and talents of nearly 4,000 women. The more than 13,000 information-packed entries also detail historical developments of particular significance to women throughout time: from the three-million-year-old remains of Lucy to the development of the first female condom.

Each entry is coded with a graphic symbol that clearly identifies one of 29 distinct areas of human endeavor, including: politics - and politically powerful women; human rights - sexual harassment, family leave,female castration, woman suffrage, the labor movement; science - astronomers, geneticists, mathematicians; medicine - physicians, nurses, and midwives, plus issues involving women's health and medical treatment; religion - religious orders, religious leaders, saints; education - educators, schools, colleges, and sororities; transportation; communications; literature; art; music; sports; architecture; crime; agriculture; nutrition; and more than a dozen other fields.