"The year is 2179. The male reigns supreme, the women's movement is crushed and women are barred from all power. Contact with other worlds has been established, and Earth has begun its colonisation of the stars. The dynasties of the Linguistics have taken on the task of talking to the aliens, and immense power has fallen into their hands. This is a novel of the cold war between the sexes, and of the hidden resistance of women who develop Láadan, a secret language of their own. Suzette Haden Elgin, a science fiction author and professor of linguistics, combines her talents to create a society in which interplanetary trade has made language study a valuable commodity — and thereby handed the so-called 'weaker sex' a weapon of liberation ... if they dare to use it."--Cover