Michelene Wandor is a poet, playwright and critic. She was Poetry Editor and a regular theatre reviewer for Time Out magazine (1971–82), and she has written extensively for and about theatre and radio in Britain.

`This excellent book ... recognizes that theatre is a barometer of the social climate and shows how the battles that have raged around sexuality throughout this century have been reflected on its stage ... It's a must. Buy it.' - Noel Greig, Gay Times

• 1 Contexts 2 Cross-dressing, sexual representation and the sexual division of labour in theatre 3 The first phase: 1969–73, 4 The second phase: 1973–7, 5 The third phase: from 1977, 6 The skilled process 7 Finding a voice: women playwrights and theatre 8 Political dynamics: the feminisms 9 Radical plays before 1968: the crisis of virility, the ‘feminine’ and the ‘female’ 10 Men playwrights in the 1970s 11 The fourth phase: women playwrights in the 1970s and early 1980s 12 Conclusions and the future; Appendix: All Het Up in Bradford by Noel Greig