From antiquity until the twentieth century, rhetorical training was exclusively concerned with forming male speakers as well as producing an explicitly masculine speaking style and method. This study focuses on such body and gender-specific training by analyzing the actio doctrine. The book also demonstrates how the transformation of rhetoric in the eighteenth century was accompanied for the first time by a discursive shift: gesture, imitation, voice, and dress guidelines were adapted for use with both genders in general education and to teach the art of conversation."