Summary: This dissertation traces the development of satirical strategies as they appear in the work of Rebecca West, Amy Lowell, Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Parker. Literary theorists have recognized the complexity of the relationship between poetics and politics in satire, but have yet to consider the relationship between satire and gender. My study not only addresses the consequent absence of women writers from anthologies and definitions of satire, but also proposes a new interpretation of satire that considers the constraints female satirists face. Chapter One not only provides background to this issue by discussing satiric theory of the twentieth century in terms of its avoidance of and aversion to femininity, but also establishes the primary argument of the dissertation, that satire is a mode that forces women writers to confront their cultural nemesis, the image of feminine perfection, or what Virginia Woolf calls the “Angel.” Chapter Two illustrates the aggressive approach of Rebecca West, who combats that nemesis by becoming an “antiangel,” but consequently alienates her audience at times. Through the example of Amy Lowell, Chapter Three shows the various challenges female satirists encounter in dealing with powerful predecessors and hostile contemporaries. Lowell's satire A Critical Fable formally adheres to poetic tradition, and yet ideologically attacks its politics. Chapter Four uses Virginia Woolf's insight in A Room of One's Own, Moments of Being and Three Guineas that the complex emotion of female anger pervades, complicates, and at times inhibits women's satire, and analyzes this insight in terms of Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. Dorothy Parker's poetry and short stories, as Chapter Five illustrates, imply that in a culture that polarizes femininity and satirical expression, women satirists must target themselves in order to survive professionally and literally. And finally, the conclusion surveys some contemporary women satirists, and articulates questions for future research. Ultimately, because women's satire challenges the masculinist poetics of traditional satire, and blurs the boundaries between the poetic, personal and political, it presents exciting possibilities for reconsidering these categories.