Marianna G. Muravyeva is an Associate Professor of Law at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (St. Petersburg) and a Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki. Her recent English publications include Shame, Blame and Culpability: Crime and Violence in the Modern State, ed. with Judith Rowbotham and David Nash (2012).Raisa Maria Toivo is a research fellow at the University of Tampere. Her English publications include Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, Finland and the Wider European Experience (2008).

• Introduction Why and How Gender Matters? Marianna Muravyeva and Raisa Maria Toivo Part 1: Historiography and the Politics of Gender 1. From Women’s Oppression to Male Anxiety: The Concept of "Patriarchy" in the Historiography of Early Modern Europe Androniki Dialeti 2. The Metaphysics of Gender in Christine De Pizan’s Thought Ilse Paakkinen 3. ‘That Women Are But Men’s Shadows’: Examining Gender, Violence and Criminality in Early Modern Britain Anne-Marie Kilday Part 2: Female Spirituality, Religion and Gender Identities 4. A Good Wife?: Demonic Possession and Discourses of Gender in Later Medieval Culture Sari Katajala-Peltomaa 5. Between Martyrdom and Everyday Pragmatism: Gender, Family, and Anabaptism in Early Modern Germany Päivi Räisänen 6. Women’s Sexuality between Legal Prescription and Ecclesiastical Control in the Romanian Principalities in the 18th Century Constanta Vintila-Gitulesku Part 3: Gendered Witches and Nordic Patriarchal Compromises 7. Women, Witches, and the Town Courts of Ribe: Ideas of the Gendered Witch in Early Modern Denmark Louise Nyholm Kallestrup 8. Male Witches and Masculinity in Early Modern Finnish Witchcraft Trials Raisa Maria Toivo 9. Gendering Moral Crimes in Early Modern England and Europe – Blasphemy the Mirror Image of Witchcraft? David Nash Part 4: Laws, Genders and Deviancies 10. Gendered Suicide in Early Modern Sweden and Finland Riikka Miettinen 11. The Responsibility of a Seducer?: Men and the Breach of Promise in Early Modern Swedish Legislation Mari Välimäki 12. Personalizing Homosexuality and Masculinity in Early Modern Russia Marianna Muravyeva

“This edited volume provides an interesting reevaluation of the concept of gender largely tested by the less-well studied historical records of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The contributors do an excellent job of demonstrating the complexity and diversity of gender while collaborating to create one clear definition of the term.” –Amanda Pipkin, University of North Carolina at Charlotte