Addressing the numerous and varied ways in which women and men's notions of themelves affected their lives between 1400 and 1750, this text explores how accepted norms of masculine and feminine behaviour influenced social, economic, and religious change.
For reasons that varied widely, leaders and thinkers from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire and from China to the Indian subcontinent sought to reform existing religions, develop new spiritual practices, promote innovative texts, and, on occasion, even create new religions.