In Connecting Spheres, Boxer and Quataert, along with an array of eminent contributors, examine the social history of women within western civilization over the past 500 years. Expanded and updated, this new edition addresses both long-standing and more recent issues which have affected women's lives in modern Europe. These topics include the role of women in public versus private spheres; changes in family life in post-communist Eastern Europe; the impact of religion on the lives of women; the growth of the prostitution sector; the rise of feminism and antifeminism; and the part female sexuality has played in impacting women's roles in social and political life.