The Gospels and the New Testament letters of Paul give women an important place in what otherwise was very much a man's world. However, in spite of the place of women in the ministry of Jesus, and references to Phoebe and other women in prominent positions, the subapostolic period onwards appears to have been increasingly male-dominated. This has affected liturgy. Performance of the rites, commentaries and then, much later, liturgical scholarship, has been mainly in the hands of men. In a previous study, Women's ways of worship, Teresa Berger documented the important role that women played in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Movement, a role that has been virtually ignored in histories of that movement. In this present ground-breaking study, Berger not only draws attention to the long history of women being made invisible in liturgy, but also ‘lifts the veil’ on gender differences, including inter-sexed persons and eunuchs as evidenced in liturgy and liturgical regulations. The first two chapters of this study are devoted to mapping the traditional writing of the liturgical past, and making the case for truthful anamnesis, honest theological commitment and a contemporary ecclesial and pastoral imperative. ‘What the study of the past can offer to the present is a genealogy for contemporary struggles and questions, in the form of a history of liturgical life filled with gender as both a fundamental given and deeply contested.’ Berger examines carefully the account of Egeria on her visit to the shrine of St Thecla – a woman visiting a female martyr's shrine, usually passed over in preference for information on the liturgy of Jerusalem. This is the entry point into space and bodies – the home where women oversaw rites for the dying and departed, as well as other domestic rituals. The Didascalia gives careful instructions about the placing of men, women, children and clergy in church buildings, and gives an insight into how gender dictated the division of sacred space. Subsequent chapters examine the eucharist, where the Odes of Solomon use milk imagery and later writers refer to Jesus as mother. Ritual purity/impurity has played a role larger than it ever should have, from restrictions on menstruation and childbirth, and this in turn has impacted upon attitudes about females in the sanctuary and having liturgical roles. But this raises questions too of the place of eunuchs, castrati and transgendered persons. Hitherto, liturgical tradition has privileged the lives of priestly and religious men. Berger rightly asks, ‘Can we assume that the struggle for holiness was so unevenly and gender-specifically successful?’ This is a very thoughtful study, which not only lifts the veil but also gives voice to a silenced section of the people of God. This is essential reading not only for the history of liturgy, but also for all those who undertake its study.