Based on primary sources, this book analyses the historical creation, contents and development of the rituals of the Adoption Rite, with which women were initiated into Freemasonry since 1744. It gives a completely new perspective on this chapter of women's history.

Dr. Jan Snoek, Ph.D. (1987) in the Sciences of Religions, University of Leiden (The Netherlands), is attached to the Institute for the Sciences of Religions at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and published widely about the development of masonic rituals. With Jens Kreinath and Michael Stausberg he published Theorizing Rituals (two volumes), Brill 2006 & 2007, and with Alexandra Heidle Women's Agency and Rituals in Mixed and Female Masonic Orders, Brill 2008.