Gender history

Gender history is a sub-field of history and

gender studies, which looks at the past
from the perspective of gender. It is in
many ways, an outgrowth of women's
history. The discipline considers in what
ways historical events and periodization
impact women differently from men. For
instance, in an influential article in 1977,
"Did Women have a Renaissance?", Joan
Kelly questioned whether the notion of a
Renaissance was relevant to women.[1]
Gender historians are also interested in
how gender difference has been perceived
and configured at different times and
places, usually with the assumption that
such differences are socially constructed.
These social constructions of gender
throughout time are also represented as
changes in the expected norms of
behavior for those labeled male or female.
Those who study gender history note
these changes in norms and those
performing them over time and interpret
what those changes say about the larger
social/cultural/political climate.

Women's and gender

histories
Women's historians and scholars have
made the differentiation between the
terms “gender” and “sex.” Sex was
determined to be the biological makeup of
an individual, while gender was
determined to be the chosen identity of an
individual.[2] Natsuki Aruga has argued
that the work of women’s historians
regarding gender has helped to solidify the
distinction between gender and sex.[3]
Women's studies and feminism form part
of the base of gender studies, of which
gender history is a sub-field. Kathleen
Brown has stated that there is a level of
difficulty in determining a distinction
between women's and gender studies as
there is no singular and overarching
definition of what it means to be a woman.
This in turn leads to difficulty in
determining a distinction between
women's and gender histories.[4]
While some historians are hesitant to
accept the title of "women's historian,"
others have taken on the title willingly.
Those who have accepted the title tend to
place a large emphasis on the study of the
welfare state in relation to feminist history
and the role that gender has played as an
organizational factor of the state. The
focus of feminist historians has also
drifted to Democratic Party policy and the
realm of policy, including pay-equity, which
is a part of both social and political
history.[5]
Impact
Despite its relatively short life, gender
history (and its forerunner women's
history) has had a rather significant effect
on the general study of history. Since the
1960s, when the initially small field first
achieved a measure of acceptance, it has
gone through a number of different
phases, each with its own challenges and
outcomes, but always making an impact
of some kind on the historical discipline.
Although some of the changes to the
study of history have been quite obvious,
such as increased numbers of books on
famous women or simply the admission of
greater numbers of women into the
historical profession, other influences are
more subtle, even though they may be
more politically groundbreaking in the end.
By 1970, gender historians turned to
documenting ordinary women's
expectations, aspirations and status. In
the 80s with the rise of the feminist
movement, the focus shifted to uncovering
women' oppression and discrimination.
Nowadays, gender history is more about
charting female agency and recognizing
female achievements in several fields that
were usually dominated by men.[6]

Within the profession

According to historian Joan Scott, conflict

occurred between Women's History
historians and other historians in a number
of ways.[7] In the American Historical
Association, when feminists argued that
female historians were treated unequally
within the field and underrepresented in
the association, they were essentially
leveling charges of historical negligence
by traditional historians. Notions of
professionalism were not rejected outright,
but they were accused of being biased.

Supplementary history

According to Scott, the construction of

Women's History as "supplementary" to the
rest of history had a similar effect. At first
glance, a supplement simply adds
information which has been missing from
the greater story, but as Scott points out, it
also questions why the information was
left out in the first place. Whenever it is
noticed that a woman found to be missing
from written history, Women's History first
describes her role, second, examines
which mechanisms allowed her role to be
omitted, and third, asks to what other
information these mechanisms were blind.

Gender theory

Finally, the advent of gender theory once

again challenged commonly held ideas of
the discipline, including those scholars
studying Women's History. Post-modern
criticism of essentialising socially
constructed groups, be they gender groups
or otherwise, pointed out the weaknesses
in various sorts of history. In the past,
historians have attempted to describe the
shared experience of large numbers of
people, as though these people and their
experiences were homogeneous and
uniform. Women have multiple identities,
influenced by any number of factors
including race and class, and any
examination of history which conflates
their experiences, fails to provide an
accurate picture.
History of Masculinity
The history of masculinity emerged as a
specialty in the 1990s, evidenced by
numerous studies of men in groups, and
how concepts of masculinity shape their
values and behavior. Gail Bederman
identified two approaches: one that
emerged from women's history and one
that ignored it:

Two types of ‘men’s history’ are being

written these days. One builds on twenty
years of women’s history scholarship,
analyzing masculinity as part of larger
 gender and cultural processes. The
other . . . looks to the past to see how
men in early generations understood
(and misunderstood) themselves as
men. Books of the second type mostly
ignore women’s history findings and
methodology.[8]

Gender in religion
All over the world, religion is formed
around a divine, supernatural figure. While
the idea of the divine, supernatural figure
varies from religion to religion, each one is
framed around different concepts of what
it means to be male and female.
Furthermore, the religion of a culture
usually directly corresponds or is
influenced by the culture's gender
structure, like the family structures and/or
the state. Therefore the religious structure
and the gender structure work together to
form and define a culture, creating the
defining structures of equality and
uniformity.[9]

See also
Aspasia
Women's history
 Schlesinger Library

Further reading
Bennett, Judith M. and Ruth Mazo
Karras, eds. The Oxford Handbook of
Women & Gender in Medieval Europe
(2013) 626pp.
Blom, Ida, et al. "The Past and Present of
European Women's and Gender History:
A Transatlantic Conversation." Journal of
Women's History 25.4 (2013): 288-308.
Carstairs, Catherine, and Nancy
Janovicek. "The Dangers of
Complacency: women’s history/gender
history in Canada in the twenty-first
century." Women's History Review 27.1
(2018): 29-40.
De Groot, Joanna and Sue Morgan, eds.
Sex, Gender and the Sacred:
Reconfiguring Religion in Gender History
(2014).
Hagemann, Karen, and Donna Harsch.
"Gendering Central European History:
Changing Representations of Women
and Gender in Comparison, 1968–2017."
Central European History 51.1 (2018):
114-127.
Jameson, Elizabeth. "Halfway across
That Line: Gender at the Threshold of
History in the North American West."
Western Historical Quarterly 47.1 (2016):
1-26.
Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy
(1986).
Petö, Andrea, and Judith Szapor, "The
State of Women's and Gender History in
Eastern Europe: The Case of Hungary,"
Journal of Women's History, (20070, Vol.
19 Issue, pp 160–166
Riley, Denise. “Am I That Name?”
Feminism and the Category of 'Women' in
History. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1988.
Rose, Shelley E. "German and American
Transnational Spaces in Women's and
Gender History." Journal of Women's
History 30.1 (2018): 163-169.
Rose, Sonya O. What is Gender History?.
Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, 2010.
Scott, Joan Wallach. Gender and the
Politics of History (1999), influential
theoretical essays excerpt and text
search
Sheldon, Kathleen. 'Women's History:
Africa" in Kelly Boyd, ed. (1999).
Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical
Writing, vol 2 . Taylor & Francis.
pp. 1308–11. ISBN 9781884964336.
Spongberg, Mary. Writing Women's
History Since the Renaissance. (2003)
308 pages; on Europe
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History (2nd
ed. 2017) a history of the movement in
the United States.
Thébaud, Françoise. "Writing Women's
and Gender History in France: A National
Narrative?" Journal of Women's History,
(2007) 19#1 pp 167–172.
Umoren, Imaobong D. "From the margins
to the center: African American women's
and gender history since the 1970s."
History Compass 13.12 (2015): 646-658.
Vertinsky, Patricia. "Gender Matters in
Sport History." in Robert Edelman and
Wayne Wilson, eds., The Oxford
Handbook of Sports History (2017): 445-
60.
Zemon Davis, Natalie. “ ‘Women’s
History’ in Transition: The European
 Case.” Feminist Studies 3, no. 3–4
(1976):

History of Masculinity

Bederman, Gail. Manliness & Civilization:

A Cultural History of Gender and Race in
the United States, 1880-1917. Chicago:
Chicago University Press, 1995.
Connell, R.W. Masculinities. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1995.
Dierks, Konstantin. "Men’s History,
Gender History, or Cultural History?"
Gender & History 14 (2002): 147–51
Ditz, Toby L. "The New Men’s History and
the Peculiar Absence of Gendered
Power: Some Remedies from Early
American Gender History," Gender &
History 16 (2004): 1-35
Dorsey, Bruce. "A Man's World: Revisiting
Histories of Men and Gender." Reviews in
American History 40#3 (2012): 452-458.
online
Gorn, Elliott J. The Manly Art–Bare-
Knuckle Prize Fighting in America (1986)
Griswold, Robert L. Fatherhood in
America: A history (1993)
 Rotundo, E. Anthony. American
manhood: Transformations in masculinity
from the Revolution to the modern era
(1993). excerpt
Tosh, John. Manliness and masculinities
in nineteenth-century Britain: Essays on
gender, family and empire (Routledge,
2017).
Traister, Bryce. "Academic Viagra: The
Rise of American Masculinity Studies,"
American Quarterly 52 (2000): 274–304
in JSTOR

References
1. "Did Women have a Renaissance?"
Becoming Visible: Women in European
History. Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
2. Brown, Kathleen M. (1993). "Brave
New Worlds: Women's and Gender
History". The William and Mary
Quarterly. 50 (2): 311–328.
doi:10.2307/2947077 . ISSN 0043-
5597 . JSTOR 2947077 .
3. Aruga, Natsuki (2012). "Can We Have a
Total American History? A Comment
on the Achievements of Women's and
Gender History". The Journal of
American History. 99 (3): 818–821.
 doi:10.1093/jahist/jas465 .
ISSN 0021-8723 . JSTOR 44308392 .
4. Brown, Kathleen M. (1993). "Brave
New Worlds: Women's and Gender
History". The William and Mary
Quarterly. 50 (2): 311–328.
doi:10.2307/2947077 . ISSN 0043-
5597 . JSTOR 2947077 .
5. De Hart, Jane Sherron (1993).
"Women's History, Gender History, and
Political History". The Public Historian.
15 (4): 77–78. doi:10.2307/3378639 .
ISSN 0272-3433 . JSTOR 3378639 .
6. "History in Focus: articles on gender
history" . www.history.ac.uk. Retrieved
2017-07-11.
7. "Gender: A Useful Category of
Historical Analysis," American
Historical Review 91, No. 5 (December
1986).
8. Gail Bederman, Journal of American
History 84 (1997) p. 680
9. Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E (2011).
Gender in History: Global Perspectives.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
pp. 109, 110. ISBN 978-1-4051-8995-8.
External links
Main focus "Frauen- und
Geschlechtergeschichte in Westfalen"

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