Half a century after the publication of The Feminine Mystique, have women really exchanged purity and maternity to become desiring machines inspired only by variations of sex, shopping and masochism - all coloured a brilliant neuro-pink?

In this volume, fifty women young and old - writers, politicians, actors, scientists, mothers - reflect on the shades that inspired them and what being woman means to them today.

Contributors include: Margaret Atwood, Joan Bakewell, Bidisha, Lydia Cacho, Shami Chakrabarti, Lennie Goodings, Linda Grant, Natalie Haynes, Siri Hustvedt, Kathy Lette, Kate Mosse, Pussy Riot, Bee Rowlatt, Elif Shafak, Ahdaf Soueif, Sandi Toksvig, Natasha Walter, Timberlake Wertenbaker Jeanette Winterson - alongside the three editors.

Editors: Lisa Appignanesi is a novelist, cultural commentator and the award-winning author of Mad, Bad and Sad, Women and the Mind Doctors, among many nonfiction books. She is a Visiting Professor in Literature and the Medical Humanities at King's College London

Rachel Holmes was the Director of Literature & Spoken Word at London's Southbank Centre. Writer, activist, programmer & teacher, she is currently working on a biography of Eleanor Marx.

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist and activist, renowned for her work on the female mind and body. Her iconic Fat is a Feminist Issue has been followed by many ground-breaking books, the most recent is Bodies.