What is the relationship between the British woman writer and the short story? This collection examines what this versatile genre offers women writers and what this can tell us about the society and culture they inhabit. From the rise of the modern printing press at the end of the 19th century through to the present digital age, these essays examine how the short story has been deployed and reworked by women writers and how they have influenced and shaped the genre's development. Considering the effect of literary inheritances, societal and cultural change and shifting publishing demands, this collection traces the evolution of the genre through to its continued appeal to women writing today. From the New Woman to contemporary feminisms, women's anthologies to microfiction, modernist writers to the contemporary works of Ali Smith and Helen Simpson, the chapters in this collection investigate a crucial yet underexamined field of British literature.