This is a unique ethnographic and historical account of the lives of urban women in contemporary Azerbaijan, drawing on archival, literary and academic sources as well as an extensive selection of life-stories of women from different generations. It explores changes for women, both in the context of developing capitalism and colonial relations in the pre-Soviet era, and under the Soviet system, to reveal the ways in which local cultural expectations and Islamic beliefs were accommodated in various modernisation projects. Focusing on a group of professional women in Baku, the book assesses the impact of the Soviet system on women's domestic, public, and work relations, and their conceptions of femininity. It further reviews the significant changes for Azeri women in the post-Soviet transition to market economy accompanied by growing Western influence. As an in-depth study of women and gender in a region of the Caucasus little explored by outsiders, it offers a rare view of the lives of Muslim women under the Soviet system and following the post-Soviet transition. The book is thus an important contribution to women's studies scholarship. The ethnographic account also offers revealing insights into the interaction of Russian, Soviet, Muslim, and Middle Eastern ideas and cultural influences that have shaped the everyday customs and traditions of a strategic country bordering Iran, Turkey and Russia.