HIST/WMST 730

Feminist Theory for Historians: From Women's to Gender History

(Graduate seminar)

Karen Hagemann

The course introduces students to the quickly growing body of theoretical and methodological literature in the history of women and gender. It is intended to acquaint participants with the major developments in the field since the 1970s. We will read the texts of authors such as Gerda Lerner, Joan Kelly, Natalie Z. Davis, Joan Scott, Judith Butler, Judith Bennet, Gisela Bock, Cathleen Canning, Leonore Davidoff, Catherine Hall, Bob Connell and John Tosh, in a chronological order, to understand how and why the theoretical and methodological debates developed in a specific direction. Because of the transnationality and transdisciplinarity of these debates, we will discuss texts from different countries and disciplines.

Recovering the lives of women from the neglect of historians was the goal of women's history from its inception. Its methodology and interests have evolved over time as it has become established as an academic discipline. From its early origins in cataloguing great women in history, in the 1970s it turned to recording ordinary women's expectations, aspirations and status. Then, with the rise of the feminist movement, the emphasis shifted in the 1980s towards exposing the oppression of women and examining how they responded to discrimination and subordination. In more recent times women's history has moved to charting female agency, recognizing women's strategies, accommodations and negotiations within a male dominated world. Although it developed out of the feminist agenda, gender history has somewhat different objectives. Recognizing that femininity and masculinity are to some extent social constructs, it investigates how institutions are gendered and how institutions gender individuals. In a short space of time gender has become an indispensable category for historical analysis alongside class and race.

Course Format 

This course is intended to acquaint students with some of the major theories that informed and now inform women’s and gender history. We will seek both to understand some of the theories that have been particularly useful for histories of women and gender, and we will explore how they have been and can be put to practical use in historical research, writing, and teaching. The heart of the seminar is the discussion in class. The success of this discussion depends on the preparedness of all students. Everyone should have read the week’s assigned readings before class. The sessions will center on their discussion. The course will be a collaborative endeavor in which we investigate theories and methodologies in the field of women’s and gender history because we hope to enhancing our own work.