Covering the lifespan of women from puberty to old age, this comprehensive collection provides ground-breaking research and theory that challenges current conceptions of women's health and illustrates the diversity of approaches in this burgeoning field. The interdisciplinary angle of the book will appeal to a wide-ranging readership and includes detailed commentaries on key topics such as anorexia nervosa, depression, women and cancer, sexual abuse, disability, exercise, body image, pregnancy, sexual violence and drug use.

The editor, Jane Ussher is Associate Professor at the Centre for Critical Psychology at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and has published widely in the field of the Psychology of Women. She was a member of the group that founded the Psychology of Women Section of The British Psychological Society, acting as its honorary secretary from 1988-1991, and chair from 1991-1992. She is also editor of the Routledge Women and Psychology series. Her previous publications include The Psychology of the Female Body (Routledge, 1989), Women's Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Fantasies of Femininity: Reframing the Boundaries of Sex (Penguin, 1997).