The book is an attempt to present the position of the laywomen and the almswomen in historical focus. Here, for the first time, we read of women of sincere aspirations and earnest will, seeking the more, the better, in life.
For the study of the laywomen the author has exploited the material found in the Canonical literature, the Commentaries thereon, the Jatakas and the Milindapanha, while most of the material for the account of the almswomen is gathered from the Vinayapitaka (especially the Bhikkhuni Khandhaka and the Bhikkhuni-Vibhanga), the Therigatha and the Commentaries. References scattered throughout Pali literature have also contributed to this account.
The book is divided into two parts bound in one Vol. Part I (Chs. 1-5) depicts the laywomen as the mother, daughter, wife, widow and worker. Part II (Chs. 1-5) deals with the almswoman, her admission into the order, the eight chief rules, Therigatha, life in the order, while chs. 4 and 5 of this part are further divided into parts or sections.

The study reveals the spiritual experiences of some of the lay-and almswomen. It throws light on the various social conditions prevailing during the life-time of Buddha and shortly after.

Women under Primitive Buddhism, I.B.Horner, Motilal, Hardcover, 390 pp, $19.95

Isaline Blew Horner (30 March 1896 � 25 April 1981), usually cited as I. B. Horner, was an English Indologist, a leading scholar of Pali literature and late president of the Pali Text Society (1959�1981). On 30 March 1896 Horner was born in Walthamstow in Essex, England. Horner was a first cousin once removed of the British Theravada monk Ajahn Amaro. In 1917, at the University of Cambridge's women's college Newnham College, Horner was awarded the title of a B.A. in moral sciences. After her undergraduate studies, Horner remained at Newnham College, becoming in 1918 an assistant librarian and then, in 1920, acting librarian. In 1921, Horner traveled to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India and Burma where she was first introduced to Buddhism, its literature and related languages. In 1923, Horner returned to England where she accepted a Fellowship at Newnham College and became its librarian. In 1928, she became the first Sarah Smithson Research Fellow in Pali Studies