The following is a short list of critical works that talk about the women in Shakespeare or patriarchal problems in his plays. I have found a link to a conference which includes some wonderful links to other sources on women in the Renaissance: Renaissance Women: Courtly Power and Influence. I have found some others which you will find at the bottom of this page.

Aughterson, Kate. Renaissance Women: Constructions of Femininity in England, A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 1995).

• While not dealing with Shakespeare specifically, this text gives wonderful primary source material on the construction of women during the period. It discusses the following topics: Theology; Physiology; Conduct; Sexuality and Motherhood; Politics and Law; Education; Work; Writing and Speaking; and Proto-Feminisms.

Barker, Deborah E. and Ivo Kamps, eds. Shakespeare and Gender: A History. (London: Verso, 1995).

• These articles span the history of feminist criticism of Shakespeare from 1976 to 1994, covering the plays, poems and even the film representations of women. The articles are generally 'classics'.

Clarke, Mary Cowden. The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines. 3 vols. (London: W.H.Smith, 1850-55).

• This book was reprinted in 1974 and still stands as an example of how women USED TO BE read in Shakespeare's texts.

Gay, Penny. As She Likes It: Shakespeare's Unruly Women. (London: Routledge, 1994).

• this book includes discussions of Twelfth Night, As You Like it, The Taming of the shrew,Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing.

Dollimore, Jonathan and Alan Sinfield, eds. Political Shakespeare: New essays in cultural materialism, (Ithaca: Cornell, 1985).

• This book has only a few articles on women in Shakespeare, but it is a useful example of how feminist criticism can be used within different theoretical models.

Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. (London: Macmillan, 1996).

• This is the classic of feminist criticism of Shakespeare. Just released in its second edition, it serves as a starting point for anyone interested in feminist readings of the Bard.

Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971).

• Pioneering feminist criticism of Shakespeare.

Howard, Jean and Marion F. O'Connor, eds. Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology. (NY: Methuen, 1987).

• Contains several feminist readings of Shakespeare's plays, most notably, an article which discusses racial and gender differences by Karen Newman.

Lenz, Carolyn Ruth Swift, Gayle Greene, and Carol Thomas Neely, eds. The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983).

• This book contains articles which discuss: female sexuality as power; women in Richard III; Shakespeare and rape; Taming of the Shrew; Much Ado About Nothing; As You Like It; intimate conversations between women in Shakespeare; Troilus and Cressida; wooing in the tragedies; Gertrude's dilemma in Hamlet; Othello; Lady Macbeth; female characters as actors and audience; A Winter's Tale in the eighteenth-century; sexism and racism in The Tempest; the chastening daughters of romance; and a bibliography of women and men in Shakespeare.

• This book includes several articles which give feminist readings.

Waller, Gary. Shakespeare's Comedies (NY: Longman, 1991).

• Waller includes many feminist readings of the comedies. His introduction is also a nice overview of criticism--including feminism.

There are, of course, Shakespeare Quarterly and other journals which occasionaly offer feminist readings of Shakespeare. I would also suggest that you look into some of the more recent sexuality readings of Shakespeare (pioneered, to some extent, by Eve Sedgewick's Between Men).

Some Links to Women

Literary: Renaissance

A Celebration of Women Writers: This link will lead you to their list of women authors currently available on-line.

Emory Women Writers Resource Project: Another site working on getting more women writers on-line.

Medieval Women

General

Spinning with the Brain: This focusses on eight seventeenth-century women. The only problem is that the link doesn't really come in quite right.... I guess you can always try.