This volume contains articles that discuss significant issues that represent points of profound cultural criticism and change in the lives of women. Analyzing traditional values and newly emerging moral decisions, the essays help construct an equitable account of the human experience while shaping a new social vision for the future. Topics covered include: religion and politics in the 1984 vice-presidential candidacy of Geraldine Ferraro; violence against women throughout history; women in the Afro-Christian worship tradition; women and the power to heal in the Haitian immigrant community; Buddhist and feminist perspectives, gender, religion and the aging society; and Louisa May Alcott's 19th century perceptions of class, race, gender and religion in her Work: a Story of Experience (1873). The essays also identify lingering patriarchal assumptions that inhibit new feminist insight. ISBN 0-8357-1803-4: $34.95.