Has this century been the best of times for women? How have the promises of freedom, parity with men, full participation in society, actually been met amid all the transformations and upheavals witnessed by the 20th century? This, the fifth volume in the series, brings the history of women up to the present, placing it in the context of the momentous events and profound social changes that have marked recent times. The history of women over the past 80 years is one of both fierce repression and unparalleled freedom, and this book reveals how political power in particular has been both wielded by women and used against them: for example, in wartime policies; the practices of the fascists and Nazis; in the conception and workings of the welfare state; and in the ideology and reality of Soviet-style Communism. Throughout this text, we observe the struggle for women's rights; early feminism coping with the challenges of mass politics, Communism, nationalism, and Freudianism; reappearing later as the women's liberation movement of the 1960s. This history is rich in images: the flapper; the woman liberated by the Pill; Superwoman of the 80s, reputedly capable of juggling career, children and lovers without missing a beat - all decoded here to expose the reality they represent and often distort. Thus we learn how the recent history of women is also a history of representation, a story in which transformations in sexual roles and relations are worked out, resisted, and complicated among the trappings of modernity, science and popular culture. What emerges from this work is some sense of how history itself is influenced by gender, of how recent women's history is not separate but different from that constructed by men and, as such, offers a new perspective on the way social roles have evolved, together with various systems of ideas and representations.