The authors describe how and why over a thousand years, by both law and custom, British women were pilloried, executed and transported and made to undergo a host of savage humiliations contrived by masculine ingenuity. In tracing the roots of these punishments and the ancient prejudices against women, this book reveals why man chose to inflict such suffering on those without political or economic power, whose crimes often resulted from society regarding women as mentally ond morally inferior. This book is of interest to anyone who questions why, as the year 2000 approaches, and despite the vote and laws supposedly outlawing sexual discrimination, the legal system may still treat women more severely than men.