Most Western democracies established women's policy agencies to improve the status of women by the 1990s. One of the book's key questions is how have women's policy agencies been able to develop, maintain or enhance their roles in the transformed political context and how have women's movements adapted to change in twelve states.

Revealing how women's movements in Western Europe, North America and Australia have affected politics on prostitution and trafficking of women since the 1970s, this study asks why they are successful in some countries but failures in others. The contributions written by an international team of experts are based on original sources. The final chapter utilizes comparative analysis to determine the factors that make women's movements and agencies successful, presenting an argument for "state feminism."

Revealing how women's movements in Western Europe, North America and Australia have affected politics on prostitution and trafficking of women since the 1970s, this study asks why they are successful in some countries but failures in others. The contributions written by an international team of experts are based on original sources. The final chapter utilizes comparative analysis to determine the factors that make women's movements and agencies successful, presenting an argument for "state feminism."

This book examines how feminist movements have contested the dominant discourses and state politics that have impeded women's autonomy over their bodies since the late 1960s. It deals with two important facets of this struggle, prostitution and the right to abortion, as they relate to the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.