When this book first appeared in 1980 under the rather quaint title of Violets and Vinegar, it was most favourably received; not, happily, as an attempt to make Women's Lib look academically respectable, but simply for what it was meant to be, perhaps even enrage, the reader. It makes no claim to be other than a very personal anthology, based, it is, almost entirely upon the readings of the compilers, both of whom had long been in the habit of taking notes of anything which struck them as memorable. The idea of making a collection of quotations solely attributable to women sprang from the realisation that in all dictionaries of quotations, from the O.D.Q. downwards, the distaff contribution is invariably well below 10%. This seemed an unlikely reflection of the true situation, a point of view which Shall We Join the Ladies? sets out to Justify.