Arguing that the status of women was worsened by the Reformation, this work examines the impact of the idea of "civic righteousness" on the position of women in Augsburg. The author suggests that its development both as a religious credo and as a social movement, must be understood in terms of gender. Until now the effects of the Reformation on women have been viewed as largely beneficial - Protestantism being linked with the forces of progressivism, individualism and modernization. This book argues that such a view of the Reformation's legacy is a profound misreading and that the status of women was, in fact, worsened by the Reformation. A number of themes are explored - the economic position of women in the household economy; the nature of "civic righteousness" and how it applied a "reformed moralism" to the role of marriage and the household; the efforts of civic authority to reform sexual deviance; the attempts to control marriage and the breakdown of marriage; and a study of convents and nuns.