Abstract
The argument proceeds along two axes: the professional and practical importance of women's history; and the value in particular of restoring the 'temporal depth' supplied by its pre-modern phases, especially the medieval history of Europe (the author's specialism). Chapter 4 presents 'patriarchal equilibrium' through the metaphor of ballroom dancing: 'a dance where women and men - many different sorts of women and men - move across the room, alter their steps, even change partners and groups, but always the men are leading' (emphasis in the original). For feminists, 'almost every girl born today will face more constraints and restrictions than will be encountered by a boy who is born today into the same social circumstances as that girl,' and the key historical question is that of patriarchy: '[w]hy and how has the oppression of women endured for so long and in so many different settings?' (emphasis in original).
