This is a book about what constitutions do to women and what women want to do to constitutions. It begins with the premise that a country's constitution, even where it may appear neutral, impacts disparately or differently with respect to gender. It examines how this occurs; at the way constitutions frame women's membership of, or absence from, the constitutional community; and how constitutional provisions can promote, or alternatively, present obstacles to gender equity and agency. It draws from the ways in which women have assessed their country's constitution, both during its formation and in its operation, specifically from the perspective of women's interests. It considers women's proposals for constitutional amendment, and the opportunities they have taken, or forged, to be part of the constitutional process, even where they lacked representation in the formal institutions of constitution making.

As Kenneth Wheare observed many years ago of modern constitutions, “practically without exception, they were drawn up and adopted because people wished to make a fresh start, so far as their system of government was concerned.” New constitutions have been coming off the drawing board in historically unprecedented numbers in recent times; indeed, more than half of the world's constitutions were framed since the 1970s.