Against the backdrop of long-term criticism of the over-representation of male archaeologists in the discipline, both as tenured academics and as contributors to important publications, it is unusual to find a lengthy edited volume that has no male authors. Perhaps this omission can be explained given that the theme focuses on ‘gender transformation’, which is a subject area that female archaeologists have traditionally covered. It does, however, represent an unusual lacuna. On closer inspection, it is evident this volume is not simply concerned with female gender, but focuses on how largely female gender transformations in the recent historical period have repercussions across social relations. Furthermore, there is a very strong sub-theme within the volume of the importance of institutions and colonialism (often in tandem) and their roles in initiating and facilitating the transformations of gender norms and relationships, often in unexpected ways, including Clements’s investigation on colonial impacts on Indian communities in Massachusetts (pp 105–29).

Gender Transformations is 430 pages long and contains sixteen chapters including an introduction (co-written by the editor, Suzanne Spencer-Wood, and contributor, Stacey Lynn Camp, pp 1–23) and commentary (solely written by Spencer-Wood, pp 391–425). Such a length ensures that a number of the chapters, including images and tables, are up to forty pages long and this allows for detailed presentation of data and considered analysis. The volume is structured around four substantive sections with rather convoluted titles: ‘The Private is Political: the public sphere inside the domestic sphere of the home’, ‘How external colonialization made domestic, intimate and bodily affairs public’, ‘Transformations of domestic and private bodily matters into public concerns and organizations’ and ‘Internal Colonialism: public reform of domestic material practices’, which in their wording tend to obfuscate rather than clarify key themes. The geographical range is rather limited in that most of the papers cover case-studies in the United States, with just two European chapters: Arwill-Nordbladh’s study of early twentieth-century Swedish modernity (pp 275–307) and Reklaityte’s very interesting contribution on gender, religion and sanitation in medieval Spain (pp 87–105). There is one paper each from South Africa (Jackson, pp 129–49) and New Zealand (Middleton’s study of early Protestant missions, pp 149–73). However, the temporal range is more representative, with one paper dating from the medieval period (Reklaityte) and a number of contributions in each century from the seventeenth century onwards to the early twentieth century.

As an editor and contributor, Spencer-Wood’s influence runs throughout the volume; however, as one of the most important theoretical feminist archaeologists today, her concern with the inclusion of feminist literature and interpretations is understandable. Regardless, the quality of the individual chapters is very high, with a truly broad consideration of arena for gender transformation, including more unusual contexts, such as Praetzelli’s thought-provoking archaeology of late nineteenth-century kindergarten as a form of ‘internal colonialism’ used to ‘Americanise’ new migrants (pp 337–63), a theme that, with merit, fills an entire section. There are also some extremely detailed and rewarding investigations of individuals, including Yentsch’s study of Mina Miller Edison, the second wife of Thomas Edison. Yentsch impressively combines a wide range of documentary sources and landscape analysis to reveal how her subject transitions from a private to a public being and how this takes material form in the landscaping of her Florida home with Edison (pp 231–75).

While a very rewarding and intriguing volume that reveals a great deal of nuance in interpretation as well as care and thought by its authors, there are a small number of minor issues: although the colour images are beautifully reproduced, there is no list of figures, images or tables. At £153 for the hardback version it is firmly out of the financial reach of those who would enjoy and benefit most from its contents. However, for those who have access to a benevolent lending library, and have an interest in gender and its evolving nature in the historical period, this is a must-read volume.