Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch is professor of contemporary history and head of the Graduate Studies Program on the Third World and Africa at the University of Paris-7 Denis Diderot. A renowned historian of sub-Saharan Africa, she has taught at most of the French-speaking African universities and has held visiting positions at Princeton and Binghamton universities. Among her many publications, Afrique noire: Permanences et Ruptures (also published in English as Africa: Endurance and Changes South of the Sahara) was awarded the Aumale prize of the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. | Beth Raps

• Introduction -- Part 1: Nineteenth-Century Women -- Peasant Women -- Slave Women -- Women and Trade at the Dawn of Colonialism -- Powerful Women -- Female Identity and Culture -- Part 2: From the Country to the City -- Rural Women and Colonialism -- Part 3: Women and Urban Migration -- Women in the City from Colonization to Independence -- The Urban Condition -- Women and Trade -- Domestic Service -- Prostitution: From "Free" Women to Women with AIDs -- Women and Factory Work -- Woman and Poverty: The Future of Female Informal-Sector Employment -- Part 4: Women and Modern Life -- Women and School -- Women and Politics: Resistance and Action in West Africa -- Women and Politics: Delay in Zaire -- Women and Politics: The Wars for National Liberation -- Sexuality and Emancipation -- Conclusion: The Future