"This comprehensive reference work traces the history of women's engagement with the production of history from antiquity to the present. It contains interpretative essays from almost 60 contributors and surveys the full range of historical writings in which women have engaged, including biographical and autobiographical writings, stories of women worthies, historical fictions, letter-writing and travelogue as well as a range of more conventional kinds of history. It also assesses women's contribution to national historiographies and includes biographical entries on women historians." "In challenging the traditional narrow definition of 'history', the Companion explores the way in which women writers have negotiated and changed this ostensibly masculinist genre, and explores the relationship between feminism and the development of 'women's history'." "The Companion to Women's Historical Writing is a reference tool and an introduction to women's historical literature."--Jacket.