Feminist Historiography

Question 1

Who was Catherine Macauley?

Answer 1

1731-1791
Female and feisty
Published 8 volumes
Wrote ‘History of England from the Reign of James I’
Supported republicanism was against too much monarchial power
Pioneer of women’s history

Question 2

What did Catherine MacCauley advocate for in Letters on Education?

Answer 2

Equal education for men and women

Question 3

Who was Eileen Power

Answer 3

1889 - 1940
Suffragette
Wrote on medieval women

Question 4

Which particular group of women did Eileen Power focus on?

Answer 4

Domestic life in nunneries

Question 5

What other things did Eileen Power believe in?

Answer 5

Pacifism
Higher education of women (which she thought, like Greer and Beauvoir, would bring equality)
She tried to write history from below

Question 6

What did Natalie Davis say about Eileen Power?

Answer 6

She was forgotten because of those that came after her didn’t keep her memory. She stepped aside for her husband to get a particular job.

Question 7

Name the pioneers of first wave feminism?

Answer 7

Alice Clark, Ivy Pinchbeck, Eileen Power, Dorothy George

Question 8

Who was Alice Clark?

Answer 8

A historian from the famous Clark family who wrote ‘Working life in the women of the 17th century’

Question 9

What was Alice Clark’s approach to the IR?

Answer 9

Pessimistic - that it was bad for women

Question 10

How did Alice Clark feel about capitalism?

Answer 10

She was anti-capitalist - almost marxist, although it is unlikely she came into contact with his ideas

Question 11

What kind of primary sources did Alice Clark use?

Answer 11

Letters, diaries, wills, account books, magistrates, wage rates, parish records, guild and municipal records, tax returns and workhouse records.

Question 12

Why did she think women were important?

Answer 12

Because of their importance to men

Question 13

Criticisms of Alice Clark?

Answer 13

Too simplistic
Only focused on a small group of women
Saw the middle class as important
Put too strong an emphasis on subsistence households which she saw as central to women loss of power

Question 14

Who was Ivy Pinchbeck?

Answer 14

1898-1982

‘Women workers in industrial revolution 1750-1860’

Question 15

What was Pinchbecks view on the IR?

Answer 15

That it was a positive experience for women and that it freed them from the home

Question 16

Why did Pinchbeck and Clark come to different conclusions?

Answer 16

Didn’t focus on the same groups

Different experiences before coming to the history

Question 17

Who was Dorothy George?

Answer 17

1878-1971

Wrote London LIfe in 18th century which looked at poorer classes in England

Question 18

What was different in Dorothy George?

Answer 18

She included women as a matter of course - their inclusion was natural and not forced

Question 19

Alice Clark, Dorothy George and Ivy Pinchbeck were all involved in the same civil rights movement, what was it?

Answer 19

Female suffrage

Question 20

Who brought up arguments that women were not capable of voting?

Answer 20

Sir E Almroth Wright

Surgeon and writer - developed vaccination for tyhpoid

Question 21

When was female suffrage instituted?

Answer 21

1929

Question 22

What did Pinchbeck and Clark consider as the starting point for women history?

Answer 22

Economic contributions

Question 23

What were Alice Clark’s view on IR?

Answer 23

1. things got worse for women for women when they were paid as individuals rather than as a family
2. Men working in factories excluded them from family work
3. Middle class women were removed from life - they weren’t needed

Question 24

What did Pinchbeck think about the IR?

Answer 24

1. Women excluded from household labour
2. Women had their own indepedant wage whcih was good for them
3. Looked at a wider range of women

Question 25

How were the feminist historians connected with left wing crtiiques of captalism?

Answer 25

Marxism, capitalism, history from below, Engels and the family

Question 26

Features of Feminist Historiography?

Answer 26

1. Female perspectives
2. Doesn’t embed norms of maleness/patriarchy
3. Uses personal sources
4. Reads into the margins
5. Social realism/lots of detail
6. History from below
7. Experiences are not homogenous

Question 27

Feaures of Second Wave Feminism?

Answer 27

1. 1960-1990 (David says no)
2. Post WW2
3. Private vs. Public sphere
4. Biology creates inequality and social injustice and is the sources of patriarchy
5. Local and national
6. Challenged popular culture

Question 28

Who Was Sheila Rowbotham?

Answer 28

1943-
Wrote ‘Hidden from History: 300 years of womens oppression and fight against it’
Skimmed history

Question 29

Who was Shulamith Firestone?

Answer 29

1945-2012
Wrote 'Dialectic of Sex' 1970
Biology is hte root cuase of oppression
Created a dialectic which is biological
Biological changes and innovations in tehcnology is what spurs the changes in society on

Question 30

Limitations of Feminism?

Answer 30

Some thought it would give new ways of imaging history but it hasn’t
Hasn’t agreed a new agreed chronology
Cateogories more flexible than sex are being looked into
Patriarchy isn’t enough to explain contrasts between culture and time

Question 31

Achievements of Feminism?

Answer 31

Added sex to the debate
Womens stories are being told
Civil rights are being gained