This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to describe and evaluate how women’s participation in western societies in general and in the Netherlands in particular would be evaluated by several major citizenship traditions. It shows that the dominant citizenship tradition, social liberalism, does not really see participation as an inherent part of citizenship. The book discusses how the public and private spheres have been separated in twentieth century Dutch society, and what the implications are for the citizenship status of men and women. It explains the role of pillarisation, paying special attention to the idea of subcultures and the typical Dutch form of civil society. The book argues that women’s participation in care gives them a second-class citizenship status, while men’s participation in paid labour and the resulting position of care dependency, gives them entrance to first-class citizenship.