How deeply embedded in Western culture are the mechanisms that deprive women of their voice in the public sphere, deny them serious treatment, and cut them off from being in power? Looking back over the long history of the Western tradition of excluding women from public and political life, from Antiquity to the present day, Mary Beard, a well-known historian and professor at the University of Cambridge, asks a number of questions: what is the cultural background of sexism in politics, what forms does it take? How are Western societies used to view women in power or in power? The search for answers to these questions is designed to help finally overcome the centuries-old inequalities that women around the world continue to suffer from. According to the author, if women are excommunicated from existing institutions of power, perhaps we should reconsider our very understanding of power.