This essay was conceived amid a contestation over the historical content of feminism at the 1976 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, held at Bryn Mawr College. An earlier version circulated as Working Paper no. 22, Center for Research on Women (now the Institute for Research on Women and Gender), Stanford University (1985), under …
Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach Read More »
Karen Garner’s book “Shaping a Global Women’s Agenda: Women’s NGOs and Global Governance, 1925–85” offers a comprehensive history of Western liberal feminist organizations that played a pivotal role in global governance from the interwar period through the UN Decade for Women. It highlights the tensions between liberal feminism and essentialism, detailing the strategic evolution of …
The evolution of gender as a category of analysis in the study of early modern history reflects significant shifts in historiographical approaches since the 1970s. Initial resistance from traditional historians to the incorporation of women’s history has transformed into broader inquiries into gender, characterized by the distinction between biological sex and socially constructed gender roles. …
