[1] The collection reprints work by female science fiction authors originally published from 1948 to 1973, arranged in chronological order.

These volumes are considered key texts in the consciousness raising of the science fiction community during the 1970s, as their assemblage gave a sense of the history of female science fiction writing while helping reclaim early writers.

Sargent's introductions to the anthologies, in particular, are seen to have offered "comprehensive and informed analyses of the images and role of women in sf.

"[3] Sargent revisited these anthologies in 1995 in the revised volume Women of Wonder, The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s and its companion volume, Women of Wonder, the Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s.

[2] In a contemporary review of Women of Wonder and Joanna Russ's The Female Man, Cindy Baron emphasizes the importance of the anthology: Writing in 2020 for the 20th anniversary of the feminist academic journal Femspec, Lisa Yaszek summed up the role Women of Wonder played in feminist science fiction criticism: