This international anthology highlights the problem - global but still hidden and vastly underestimated - of violence against women. It draws on the experiences of women from countries ranging from Papula New Guinea to Scotland, Tanzania to Tibet, Czechoslovakia to Argentina. Thematically arranged, it explores domestic violence and child sexual abuse, sexual harassment in the workplace, women and torture, genital mutilation, and the effects of male violence on women's reproductive health. It looks at efforts by women to find practical solutions through schemes such as the introduction of women's police stations in Brazil and Pakistan, strategies to change the law in the USA and Bangladesh, and popular education projects in Canada, Jamaica and Australia.

Miranda Davies is a writer and editor with a longstanding interest in gender, development and human rights. She has worked as a freelance writer and editor for numerous organisations, including Isis International Women's Network, the Central America Committee for Human Rights, Virago, Channel Four, the Rough Guides, Sort Of Books and the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Miranda has been a book editor and Managing Editor of BAAF's peer-reviewed quarterly journal, Adoption & Fostering, since 1996. This job sparked an interest in child welfare, especially the needs and rights of children separated from their families of origin. Some of the similarities with intercountry adoption in turn gave rise to a fascination with reproductive tourism and the many ethical and other implications of the current boom in commercial surrogacy. In August 2014, Miranda attended a three-day International Forum on Intercountry Adoption & Global Surrogacy organised by International Social Services (ISS) in The Hague, where she met many of the potential contributors to the proposed anthology. Miranda has two grown-up daughters and lives in London.