Women past and present : biographic and multidisciplinary studies

In Western societies, many traditional feminist claims have already been fulfilled both in law and in official discourse.

Indeed, legislative steps have already been taken towards securing civil and political rights and equal opportunities for women.

This, of course, is not the case in many other regions of the world, as some of the chapters in this book clearly testify.

Yet, notwithstanding the gains achieved in Western societies, residual forms of resistance and prejudice still persist in discourses, categories and discriminative practices in this so-called "post-feminist" era.

Furthermore, new manifestations of asymmetries in gender relations and new ways of thinking and experiencing subjectivity are currently emerging, as a result of growing globalisation, economic crises, migration patterns, female sex and labour trafficking, trans-nationalism, and new technologies, not to mention the beauty and body sculpting industries.