In her collection of linked essays, Jerkins takes on perhaps one of the most provocative contemporary topics: What does it mean to "be"-- to live as, to exist as-- a black woman today? Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged...

"World events continue to reveal the importance of understanding how women live across continents and cultures. Using maps, text, and other graphics in this new revision of her eye-opening book, Joni Seager employs up-to-the-minute research and data to show what shifts have occurred since the first edition was published over twenty years ago--the strides made by women and the distance still to be traveled. She explores the current status of women...