This study maps the field of 17th century women's writing in Spanish, English and French and situates the work of Sor Juana more clearly within that field. It holds up the multilayered, protofeminist writings of Sor Juana as a meaningful lens through which to examine the literary production of her female contemporaries. Early modern women writers whose works are explored include Marie de Gournay, Margaret Fell Fox, Catalina de Erauso, Maria de Zayas, Ana Caro, Mme de Lafayette, Anne Bradstreet, Saint Teresa and Margaret Lucas Cavendish. Stephanie Merrim's study offers a picture of the resources that the cultural and historical climates of the 17th century placed at the disposal of women writers, the manners in which women writers instrumentalized them, the building blocks and concerns of early modern women's writing and the continuities between early modern and modern women's writing.