While most evolutionary theorists have focused their thinking around male needs and the development of male skills such as hunting, Elaine Morgan convincingly argues that since women are the primary progenitors of humankind, female concerns may have played a far more significant role in bringing our species to where it is today than is generally acknowledged. She presents the startling possibility that humanity might well have passed through a phase as an aquatic mammal and points to various characteristics that humans share with aquatic mammals, but not with land-dwelling mammals. She skillfully sketches the circumstances that might have led to such a move and then discusses the changes our bodies might have undergone to facilitate the shift. Above all, though, she asks of her readers to consider the role the female of the species played in our survival and to ensure that it does not go unacknowledged again.