All but one of the 14 women narrators featured in this book came of age in 1970s Chicago. They grew up in neighborhoods across the West and South sides, which witnessed the reification of racial segregation over the course of their young lives. This meant that the women lived in neighborhoods that were either all Black, all Latino, or all white, a pattern that proved true for much of the city of Chic ago at the time and continues to this day.