This blog is premised on the assumption that the four areas of scholarly analysis below are related but ulitmately distinct.
Feminist History: historical research informed by feminist theory.
Gender History: historical research into gender, typically focusing on the social and/or discursive construction of feminities and masculinities in a particular historical context.
Women’s History: historical research focusing on women’s lives, activities, accomplishments, organisations.
History of Feminism: historical research focusing on feminism as a socio-political movement and as an evolving body of sociopolitical thought.
It borrows this distinction from Judith M. Bennett’s talk given at the IHR Women’s History Seminar on 28/10/2005 entitled “Feminist history, women’s history, gender history”.
Thank you, these distinctions are very useful. I can’t fault them. As I am not a historian but a political analyst of the Spanish women’s movement of the 1970s, who is finding herself obliged to act as a bit of a historian because of need to gather and interpret material of the period before it is forgotten or rewritten by male historians/political scientists, my concern is: how do we MAKE CLAIMS ABOUT WHAT DIFFERENCE WOMEN MADE TO THE HISTORY, REALITY, AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THAT PERIOD? (or any other period studied by the four types of history above). I get the impression from searching around that this is no longer a concern? Hopefully I’m wrong. Could we have a blog on this next time? I look forward to hearing from others about this issue.
By: Monica Threlfall on January 20, 2008
at 5:42 pm