In Descent of man 2: 327, Darwin wrote:

It was a surprising thing to write at a time when there was already much discussion of the social disadvantages faced by women; their lack of education, their exclusion from the professions and politics, their legal disabilities. Darwin's own beloved Jane Austen had pointed out, through her heroine Anne Elliot in Persuasion, ‘Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove any thing.’ How could Darwin be unaware of the social bias that doomed most women to underachievement, and the bias of perception that caused even high achievers to be considered second rate compared with men?

Darwin knew of plenty of talented women through his correspondence and in his daily life. There were women scientists who corresponded with Darwin and sometimes even made a living of sorts in science. Darwin's letters also bring to light the participation of women in science in less public ways, as editors, observers, collectors, supporters, and popularisers. This activity is not always very evident in published works of Victorian science. This book seeks to throw light on the lives of the women around Darwin: what they were doing in science and other fields, and what kind of conversations they were having about women's rights and women's education.