" . . . rich and thought-provoking . . . That kind of collaborative writing is feminist scholarship at its best, and exhaustingly difficult." —The Women's Review of Books"A substantial contribution to women's studies and autobiographical criticism." —Choice" . . . exciting. . . . will lead to new insight and appreciation of the variety and complexity of women's lives." —Feminist Collections" . . . provocative . . . " —American Ethnologist" . . . rich in thought-provoking insights into the particular ways women have been socialized and the individual routes through which they have successfully resisted roles and paradigms of behavior inimical to the development of a robust sense of self." —Women and Language" . . . very fine collection of essays . . . " —Auto/Biography Studies"The essays deal with a fascinatingly broad palette of personal narrative types . . . This book is to be recommended to anyone interested in feminist research . . ." —MonatshefteThis groundbreaking multidisciplinary and multicultural examination of women's oral and written documents offers rich insights into the ways that women's voices and life stories can inform scholarly research. The book expands our understanding of both the shared experience of gender and the profound differences among women.