This introductory women's studies text synthesizes ideas from a variety of disciplines to explore the simultaneously political, social, and personal topic of how patriarchal society has imposed an inferior identity upon women. Rowland argues that this negative identity reinforces differences between the sexes and relegates women to a position of "other," where they function as a service class for men. Coinciding with the most recent threats to women's legal rights to control their own fertility and bodies, Women Herself offers a timely, in-depth examination of the development and maintenance of patriarchal oppression and the resistance process that leads to liberation.