Why has gender inequality persisted for so long without causing revolutionary change? That's the central question Scott poses in this 1998 collection of essays that examine how thoughts and discussions about gender shape everyday life and politics. While economic, social, and class inequalities have produced large-scale social change, gender inequality has not done the same. Analyzing the ways in which language controls our understanding of experience, Scott argues that gender has already played a role in many social changes, but that historians have lacked the theory needed to identify and describe that role. She insists that gender is actually the most important way to understand the difference and hierarchies in society.