This paper is concerned with determining the influences of biographers' gender on the content of biographies of women. The following questions are addressed: Do some treatments of subjects produce feminist or sexist biographies? What are the principal characteristics of both forms? Which, if any, of these features combine to result in identifiable subgenres? Materials analyzed include biographies of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Angelina and Sarah Grimke. Comparisons are made with biographies of Keats, Shelley, Hugo, and Disraeli. A different time period is represented by the biographies of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Oliver Cromwell. Definition of the differences between sexist and feminist biographies includes authors' treatment of such factors as physical appearance, social roles, and psychology and motivation. It is concluded that the sex of the biographer is not the necessary determinant of the biography's orientation; both sexist and feminist biographies may be written by either men or women. (KS)