Newfoundland is a little known island which lies in the cold Labrador current off the Atlantic coast of Canada. While its proximity to the valuable Grand Banks fisheries made it one of the earliest parts of North America to be settled by Europeans, Newfoundlanders, this text argues, have endured centuries of poverty and exploitation. It contends that the brief burst of prosperity that followed their entry into the Canadian federation has now foundered in the present economic recession and the collapse of the fishery, and that life in Newfoundland has returned to what it has always been - a struggle for survival in a harsh environment. The history and present experience of Newfoundland women are the focus of this study. Newfoundland women have learnt to survive and to establish for themselves lives of dignity and independence. The author claims that this is the more remarkable in a maritime society, which conventional wisdom says should be dominated by a macho culture and a rigid and extreme sexual division of labour. Based on ten years of research, the studies in volume are intended to help the reader to understand this culture in the context of current feminist theory.