Includes index

The advantages of being a woman artist / Anonymous -- Feminism / Anonymous -- From A poster distributed by the NUS Women's Campaign / Anonymous -- A receipt for writing a novel / Mary Alcock -- From Work ; A wail ; From Jo's boys / Louisa May Alcott -- From A letter to Frances Burney / Maria Allen -- From Kinflicks / Lisa Alther ... [etc] To Mrs. Frances-Arabella Kelly / Mary Barber -- From Nightwood / Djuna Barnes -- From Down the street / Lynda Barry -- From Can a woman get a laugh and a man too? ; Interview / Anne Beatts -- One-liners / Joy Behar -- From The rover ; From An epistle to the reader, prefixed to The Dutch lover / Aphra Behn -- From Adult children of normal parents / Jennifer Berman -- One-liner / Shirley Temple Black -- One-liner / Naomi Bliven -- From Just wait till you have children of your own! / Erma Bombeck -- From Punchline--I don't get it / Elayne Boosler -- From Collected impressions ; Pink May ; The unromantic princess ; From The death of the heart ; From The heat of the day ; From The little girls ; From The hotel ; From To the north ; From Eva Trout ; From The house in Paris / Elizabeth Bowen -- From The revolution of little girls / Blanche McCrary Boyd -- From Something ain't right / Julia A. Boyd -- From The I hate to cook book / Peg Bracken -- The prologue ; The author to her book / Anne Bradstreet -- From Frustration / Clare Bretecher -- From The tenant of Wildfell Hall / Anne Bronte -- From Shirley ; From Villette ; From Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte -- From Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte -- White girls are peculiar people ; On marriage / Gwendolyn Brooks -- From Sex and the single girl / Helen Gurley Brown -- A note ; From Rubyfruit jungle ; From Six of one / Rita Mae Brown -- A man's requirements / Elizabeth Barrett Browning -- From A letter to her sister Esther / Frances (Fanny) Burney -- One-liner / Brett Butler -- One-liner / Liz Carpenter -- From Learning about things ; From If not poetry, then what? ; From Woman and her image ; From Cooking lesson / Rosario Castellanos -- From A narrative of the life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke / Charlotte Charke -- One-liner / Ilka Chase -- From The four elements ; From Parallel universes ; From Unscientific Americans ; From Proof of life on earth / Roz Chast -- One-liner / Margaret Cho -- To the ladies / Lady Mary Chudleigh -- From Top girls / Caryl Churchill -- One-liner / Ina Claire -- One-liner / Ellen Cleghorn -- homage to my hair ; aunt agnes hatcher tells (about my daddy) / Lucille Clifton -- From Making light: some notes on feminist humor / Kate Clinton -- From An essay on the art of tormenting / Jane Collier -- Sickroom visitors / Patricia Collinge -- From The CEO's second wife / Julie Connelly -- From Delia's song / Lucha Corpi -- From Notes from a fragmented daughter / Elena Tajena Creef -- From Death in a tenured position / Amanda Cross (Carolyn G. Heilbrun) -- From Available light / Ellen Currie ... [etc.].

The most comprehensive and authoritative work on women's witty, wily, and wicked humor, from the 1700s to the present, featuring such voices as Anita Loos, Mae West, Erma Bombeck, and Lily Tomlin.