The Origins of Female Dominance in the Western consensual authority tradition are traced through erotic literature, professional practice and the emergence of organised Lifestyle communities across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Female Dominance developed alongside — and in dialogue with — Leather, BDSM and D/s cultures, contributing its own institutions, literature and practices.

Early written references to female-led authority themes long predate the modern Lifestyle, appearing in a variety of literary and cultural sources. Modern community forms are largely a twentieth-century development.

The Lexicon presents this history descriptively and does not attempt to resolve scholarly debates about origins or influences.