S00165700 Zac Boyd

Hannah Forsyth

HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 1

How does it change history to interpret it through the lens of gender. How is this
different to doing 'women's history' or 'men's history'?
Gender history is the study of behaviours which seek to explore what has constituted
feminine and masculine behaviours throughout time. This differs from womens and
mens history as they are focused on the changing roles and experiences of women and men
throughout history.
Scott explains the absence of an independent gender analysis in historical approaches such as
Marxism.1 Gender is seemingly confined to concepts such as family, resulting in the historian
unable to connect it to other historical constructs such as economy, politics or power.2 This is
important as associations such as masculinity and power cannot be drawn without reference
to the representation of gender in societies.3
A study of gender rather than the genders expands historical thought. For example rather than
studying specific races, Asian, European, African, one could expand on the idea of what race
encompasses. Just as gender history looks at traditional behaviours that constitute gender, a
race study could analyse comparative histories that comprise the racial spectrum.
Scott suggests historians need to rethink their methods of analysis, explaining how change
occurs, rather than pinpointing origins to conceive collaborative processes fundamentally
interconnected.4
Gender history rejects the idea of separate spheres of men and women, instead offering
cultural constructions about appropriate roles for men and women.5 Gender as a history of
each sex is a collection of experiences pertaining to either man or woman. Conversely,

Joan Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, The American History Review 91, no. 5 (1986):
1061.
2
Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1063.
3
Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1063.
4
Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1067.
5
Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1056.

S00165700 Zac Boyd

Hannah Forsyth

HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 2

gender as paradigm, as it is in gender history, reinforces collective historical discourses of

gender.
Distinction of gender is integral to avoiding homogenous assumptions of social experiences,
Rose summarising this idea in her interpretation of gender history as a study of transforming
gender characteristics.6 Ultimately, new perspectives on old questions are provided when
history is interpreted through the lens of gender.7

6
7

Sonya Rose, What is Gender History? (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2010), 83.
Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, 1075.

S00165700 Zac Boyd

Hannah Forsyth

HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 3

Bibliography
Rose, Sonya. What is Gender History? Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2010.
Scott, Joan. Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. The American History
Review 91, no. 5 (1986): 1053-1075.