Humanist education and the Renaissance concept of woman / Hilda L. Smith -- Religion and the construction of femininity / Suzanne Trill -- Advice for women from mothers and patriarchs / Valerie Wayne -- Women reading, reading women / Jacqueline Pearson -- Women/'women' and the stage / Ann Thompson -- Feminine modes of knowing and scientific enquiry : Margaret Cavendish's poetry as case study / Bronwen Price -- Renaissance concepts of the 'woman writer' / Margaret W. Ferguson -- Courtly writing by women / Helen Hackett -- Women's poetry in early modern Britain / Elizabeth H. Hageman -- Women's writing and the self / Elspeth Graham -- Possibilities of prose / Betty S. Travitsky -- First female dramatists / Ros Ballaster.