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World History and the History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Author(s): Merry Wiesner-Hanks
Source: Journal of World History, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar., 2007), pp. 53-67
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
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World History and the History of
Women,
Gender;
and Sexuality
MERRY WIESNER-HANKS
University
ofWisconsin-Milwaukee
of the development
of world
excellent?study
on the
Patrick
remarks
World
History,
Manning
In history, Navigating
lack of intersection
between
social history and world history as the two
over the last several decades.1 World history and
fields have developed
the history of women,
gender, and sexuality have also seen relatively
his
recent?and
which
several women's historians,
few interchanges,
including Bonnie
in various
and
have
noted
I,
Smith, Judith Zinsser, Margaret
Strobel,
in Navigating World History, writing
venues.2 Manning
does as well
as a history of great states and long-distance
"World history, especially
of gender and little space for women
included
little
trade,
recognition
... it remains
studies
of women
and gender roles in world
that
striking
so
and
that
have
their
has been
history
slowly
developed
development
to a small number of themes."3
restricted
about this issue, Manning
this be? In his comments
sug
Why might
reason
is
for
this
the
"well
that
the
that
established
gests
presumption
1
Patrick Manning,
Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan,
2003).
2
"And Now
for Something
Different:
the
Judith P. Zinsser,
Completely
Gendering
in The New World History: A Teacher's Companion,
ed. Ross E. Dunn
World History
Survey,"
and "Women's History, World History,
and the Con
(Boston: Bedford,
1999), pp. 476-478,
struction of New Narratives,"
Bon
12, no. 3 (2000):
Journal ofWomen's
History
196-206;
inWomen's History
inGlobal Perspective Vol. 1, ed. Bonnie Smith
nie Smith,
"Introduction,"
of Illinois Press, 2004),
"Women's
PP- I-8; Merry Wiesner-Hanks,
(Urbana: University
and World
Radical History Review 91 (Winter
Courses,"
133-150;
History
History
2005):
and Margaret
of Women's
His
and Marjorie
"The Theory
and Practice
Strobel
Bingham,
in Global
in Smith, Women's
tory and Gender
pp. 9-47.
History,
History
Perspective,"
3
pp. 208, 210.
Manning,
Navigating World History,
i
Journal ofWorld History, Vol. 18, No.
of Hawai'i Press
? 2007 by University
53
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54
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
MARCH
2OO7
lives are acted out in the private sphere of the family rather
than the public
and politics"
and notes
that
sphere of the economy
one reason scholarship
on colonized
seems to be leading the
societies
to world history
is that "in colonial
situ
way in a gendered
approach
state
in
the
interferes
the
of
families
and
values
social
ations,
working
among
presumption
generally."4 This may indeed be a well-established
women's
world
whom
of
knows very well. Most historians
Manning
gender, and sexuality today begin with the exact opposite pre
is not the same as the his
that women's
sumptions, however:
history
state
in the working
of
that
the
the family,
has always interfered
tory
to
continues
of families and social values (and
do so), that the bound
aries between
and shifting,
variable,
public and private are contested,
and perhaps don't really exist at all.
statements
and his thorough
of the field of
discussion
Mannings
see as the reason
I would
world history
what
highlight
inadvertently
historians,
women,
for this situation: women's/gender
history and world history have both
at the same time as, in part, revisionist
argu
interpretations
developed
ing that the standard story needs to be made broader and much more
or uninterested
as
both have been viewed by those hostile
complex;
"had
"having an agenda." Both have, as Judith Zinsser has commented,
to write with the stories of men's
lives in the United
States and Europe
on
in their readers' memories."5
Both have concentrated
paramount
time in
their own lines of revision and, because
there is only so much
a day and only so many battles one can fight, have not paid enough
to what
attention
is going on in the other. Thus neither has a very
good idea of what the other has been doing over the last several dec
the other in terms that the other would
ades, and each conceptualizes
see women's history as a matter of
find old-fashioned:
world historians
see world history
families and private
historians
life; women's/gender
as area studies and world-systems
theory.
and
The primary revisionary
and women's
paths in world history
in opposite directions.
In Patrick Man
is
connections
of
the
within
the
story
history
The world historian's work is to portray the
community.
of boundaries
and the linking of systems in the human past."6
gender history
ning's words,
global human
crossing
As David
have
also been
"world
Northrup
commented
4
Ibid., p. 210.
5
Zinsser, "Women's History,"
6
Manning,
Navigating World
recently,
world
history
has been
p. 197.
History,
p. 3.
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the
Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
and the History
ofWomen
55
In contrast, after an initial flurry of
story of the "great convergence."7
over
is global," women's
and gender history
the last
"sisterhood
decades have spent much more time on divergence,
categories
making
ever more complex. There was, of course, the Holy Trin
of difference
age,
ity of race, class, and gender, but there was also sexual orientation,
and able-bodiedness.
Women's
marital
status, geographic
location,
that every key aspect of gender relations?the
historians
emphasized
between
the
between
family and the state, the relationship
relationship
so
on?is
and
and
and
class
historically,
culturally,
gender
sexuality,
a
looks
that
like
male/
dichotomy?public/private,
specific. Everything
female, gay/straight,
black/white?really
so as to problematize
that is, complicated
nature of the oppositional
pair.
isn't, but should be "queered,"
the artificial and constructed
that most historians
revisionary
differing
paths have meant
as
of
scholars
themselves
women,
identify
gender, and sexuality
as world historians,
and both leading
thus do not think of themselves
and younger scholars who do identify as world historians
do not regu
on
or
or
as
a
women
include
focus
primary cat
larly
sexuality,
gender
These
who
in the fact that
is reflected
egory of analysis. This lack of intersection
was only one
at the 2003 World History Association
there
conference,
full panel and two individual papers (out of forty panels)
that focused
on women,
or
were two
at
the
conference
there
2004
gender,
family;
two
at
two
and
individual
and
the
conference
2005
papers;
panels
no
none
was
At
of
conferences
and
these
there
papers
panels.
anything
on sexuality. Of the eighty articles
in the last five years of the Journal
examine women or gender, and
ofWorld History, only three specifically
none focuses on sexuality. Of the more
than thirty books in the Ash
series
"An
World:
The
gate
Expanding
European
Impact on World His
one
on
women
or
not
focuses
tory 1450-1800,"
gender, though there
is one on families. This could be because gender is so well integrated as
a category of analysis that separate articles or books aren't necessary
and stir" stage has been vaulted
(in other words, that the "add women
case.
not
is
but
this
the
over),
to the
From the other side, well over half of the paper proposals
in
Conference
the
Berkshire Women's
several
last
years it was
History
held (1996, 1999, 2002, 2005) focused on U.S. history, despite the fact
that the 1996 Berks theme was "Complicating
the 1999
Categories,"
theme was "Breaking Boundaries,"
and the 2002 theme was "Local
7
History
David Northrup,
and the Great Convergence:
"Globalization
Rethinking
in the Long Term," Journal ofWorld History
16 (2005): 249-268.
World
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JOURNAL
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OF WORLD
HISTORY,
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2OO7
and Global Knowledge."
The 2005 Berks theme was even
Knowledge
more pointedly
uSin
Fronteras:
Women's
Global Con
Histories,
global:
but about half the proposals were still in U.S. history. Yes,
versations,"
the "globalization"
of U.S. history has affected women's
and
history,
issues such
many of the papers that focused on U.S.
topics considered
as migration,
various
American
ethnic
neo-imperialism,
diasporas,
were
and
transnationalism.
still
about
the
United
States,
identity,
They
in the last five years of
however. Of the eighty-eight
articles published
sHistory, only eight are what Iwould term "world
the Journal ofWomen
two-thirds
do deal with
the
topics,
topics outside
though
history"
to the American
Historical
United
States. Of the books
submitted
for consideration
Association
for the Joan Kelly Prize in
by publishers
two
women's
for
the
last
books a year),
years (about ninety
history
about 40 percent
focus on U.S. history,
another 40 percent
focus on
a
Europe, and about 20 percent are about the rest of the world. Only
handful
take on topics that have been at the center of world history,
or encounters
such as trade, cultural diffusion,
between
population
groups.
some people may interpret all these numbers as intentional
Though
on the part of journal editors and conference
I
exclusion
organizers,
to know that it more
edit a journal and have run enough conferences
or papers submitted.
con
Because
likely reflects a lack of manuscripts
ference paper submissions
often come from younger
includ
scholars,
the prospects
for the imme
ing those still in graduate school, however,
much world history
does not involve
diate future aren't great?too
and gender history
focuses on the
gender, and too much women's
United
States.
The lack of interchange
between world history and social history,
seem to be
world history
and women's
and between
history, might
as
a
as
most
stories
women's
link it with
of
field
history
directly related,
of the 1960s and 1970s and also with the rise
the feminist movement
in the 1960s. That
is one
latter connection
of the New Social History
In a recent article in
however.
always been comfortable,
sHistory,
comments
that "there was
Scott
the Journal ofWomen
Joan
women's
from
social history.
about
inevitable
arising
history
nothing
terms
the grain of
the
and against
feminists
Rather,
argued, within
con
that women were a necessary
and new left Marxism,
behaviorism
that has not
If they were omitted, key insights were
for social historians.
sideration
was
male historians
cele
constructed. While
lost about the ways class
brated the democratic
class, histori
impulses of the nascent working
to its gender hierarchies
ans of women
[and] also offered a cri
pointed
tique of the ways
in which
labor historians
reproduced
the machismo
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World
Wiesner-Hanks:
of trade unionists.
themselves
History
This
and the History
did not
(and still find
always
themselves)
ofWomen 57
sit well,
indeed feminists found
at meetings
of labor
ghettoized
historians."8
this from a conference
years ago sponsored by History
its subtitle to "a jour
had
which
Journal,
just
changed
Workshop
only
nal of socialist and feminist historians,"
but in which
the two sides of
not equal.9 That
that linking were still quite separate and definitely
has changed;
the editorial board at History Workshop
Journal is now
I remember
and that of Radical History Review has slightly
exactly gender balanced,
more women
than men.
(What's going on in labor history, at least in
terms of journals, has been complicated
the
by the dispute between
and its publisher, Taylor and Francis, which
editors of Labor History
led to a founding of a new journal in 2004, Labor: Studies inWorking
Class History of theAmericas,
edited by Leon Fink. The editorial board
more
of the new journal is distinctly
than that of
gender-balanced
Labor History,
in its mission
however,
and the phrase
"men and women"
does appear
statement.)
Scott's
labor history
and
Despite
sliding from one to the other,
leftie history are not the same as social history, of course, though both
are often seen, like women's history, as growing out of the New Social
of the 1960s. In the last several decades, however,
women's
History
have stressed that what they do is not always social history,
historians
to avoid the very presumption
about the limitation of women's
lives to
the private sphere of the family that Manning
talks about. They assert
cannot
that there is really no historical
be analyzed from
that
change
a feminist perspective,
and no historical
change?or
continuity?that
in some way. (They also assert that
did not affect the lives of women
these two things are not the same, that is, that feminist analysis does
not have to be about women.)
in historical
They argue most forcefully
fields in which
the fit seems less obvious and in which
the resistance
to women's
history
has
been
greatest?intellectual
history,
political
8
"Feminism's
Journal of Women's
16, no. 2 (2004):
Joan Scott,
History,"
History
to Parasitism,"
"From Supplementarity
and
10-29. With
responses by Afsaneh
Najmabadi,
in Feminism's
"Power and Politics
Future."
Evelynn M. Hammonds,
History?and
9
in 1983, was titled "Religion
That conference,
and Society"
held
and organized
by
and Lyndal Roper, who subsequently
edited a confer
Samuel,
James Obelkevich,
Raphael
ence volume, Disciplines
and
(London: Routledge
of Faith: Religion, Patriarchy and Politics
a session on "Women
ended with
conference
and Christianity
Paul,
Kegan
1987). The
the conference
"released a great deal
organizers note in the book introduction
Today," which
is a very understated
of anger." This
of a scene Iwill never forget, with people
description
shouting and standing on chairs, those in the back of the room calling for the heads of those
who
that the topic of the session
thought
those in the front just as fervently
arguing
could be discussed
that it had to be.
in a dispassionate
way,
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and
JOURNAL
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HISTORY,
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2OO7
is in part because who doesn't
love a
history, military
history. This
more
But
I
it
would
because
has
been
also,
argue,
good fight?
satisfying
to take on people
in such fields than those who are
and comfortable
and intellectually.
closer politically
when women's
histori
Generally
ans set what they do up against "traditional" history, that "traditional"
ismore often the story of states and
history, despite Scott's comment,
unions
that
of
labor
and socialist parties.
than
generals
The
"women's history"
also
and "gender history"
split between
mixed up in this distinguishing
of women's history from social
has recently commented
that "social his
Najmabadi
history. Afsaneh
was
most
of
the
women's
former
but
tory
[that is,
welcoming
history],
as gender became
a troubled cate
anxious about the latter, especially
at the
of gender history
occurred
gory in itself."10 The development
same time as the "linguistic
turn" and "the new cultural history," and
two are
in and out of the fields?the
in some people's minds?both
became
to the linguistic
historians
related. Many women's
responded harshly
turn. Wasn't
it ironic, they noted,
that just as women were
learning
and asserting
they were part of history,
"history"
they had a history,
In her won
construct?
became
just a text and "women" just a historical
in
Liz
article
Church
"The
titled
1998
History,
Lady Vanishes,"
derfully
were
we
at
to
told
abandon
the
Clark wrote,
just
subjectivity
"Why
historical moment
that women had begun to claim it?"11
sHis
In an article in the most recent issue of the Journal ofWomen
in U.S.
women's
surveys books and dissertations
history
criticizes
Lerner
and
Gerda
documents
the trend toward
1998?2000,
and discourse.
She comments
that
culture,
representation,
studying
eco
in
interest
and
the
"the subject of class is being massively
ignored,
to be fad
nomic
lives in the past seems generally
realities of women's
a
interest
She
and
"low
order
of
aroused
also
criticizes,
finds,
ing."12
by
women's
organizations,
topics such as suffrage, women's
struggles for
subjects in general," and calls for
equality under the law, and political
more
and experi
research that "focuses on the activities,
thoughts,
tory that
ences
of women,"
and that also constructs
an
paradigm for
egalitarian history of men
a "new
theory that develops
as agents of his
and women
10
"From Supplementarity,"
p. 32.
Najmabadi,
11
"The Lady Vanishes:
Dilemmas
of a Feminist Historian
after the
Elizabeth A. Clark,
consideration
67 (1998): 3. Clark also has a book-length
'Linguistic Turn,'" Church History
of the linguistic
and the Linguistic Turn (Cambridge,
turn, History, Theory, Text: Historians
Mass.:
Harvard University
Press, 2004).
12
Gerda Lerner, "U.S. Women's
Past, Present and Future," Journal ofWomen's
History:
16, no. 4 (2004):
10-27, with responses by Kimberly
Springer, Kathi Kern, Jennifer
History
is on p. 21.
M. Spear, and Leslie Alexander.
The quotation
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Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
and the History
ofWomen
59
tory."13 In recent speeches, Lerner 's critique of the focus on represen
tation has been even sharper.
turn provoked
and led to splits
The
strong reactions
linguistic
within many other historical
fields as well. Most
recently, however,
cultural history, or rather the more broadly defined "cultural studies,"
has portrayed
force but as a healer of all wounds,
itself not as a divisive
a sort of humanistic
unified field theory. "Cultural studies" understands
on Web
sites and in essay collec
itself?at
least in self-descriptions
tions?as
I've
been
including everything
talking about: social history,
women's
"social"
gender history. The word
history, world history,
most
in
of
the
studies
cultural
appears
programs?social
descriptions
construction
do
social
of
social
relations?as
words
that
ory,
values,
and
suggest (though they rarely use the word) history?contemporary
and
and
present
past.
past cultures, change
continuity,
Cultural
studies does not understand
itself as growing out of or
even
linked
to social history,
however,
and even
less to anthropology.
Both Colin Sparks (in the readerWhat IsCultural Studies?) and Simon
Studies Reader)
locate the origins of cultural
(in The Cultural
in two books of literary theory, The Uses of Literacy by Richard
and Culture and Society by Raymond Williams.14
Hoggart
Sparks does
a "shift from the aesthetic
note
to the
that these two represented
was
it
definition
of
but
when
culture,"
only
anthropological
literary
criticism shifted that a new field was born. The fact that anthropolo
During
studies
definition
of culture" for quite some
gists had had an "anthropological
time did not seem to matter. Nor did it seem to occur to the folks at
Towson
State's cultural
studies program
that someone,
somewhere
in both the
of
life
have
been
might
already
studying "aspects
everyday
a
in
and
the
include
their
of the
present
past,"
phrase they
description
his
program's objects of study.15 They do world history and women's
race
of
and
ethnic
course, studying "gender, sexuality, class,
tory, too,
we can just
and national
ity, globalization,
identity." So apparently
connections
about
and
stop worrying
promoting
finding
interchange,
because cultural studies has done it for us.
as you can imagine.
There are some problems with this, however,
13
Ibid., pp. 22, 24-25.
14
of Cultural
inWhat
Colin
"The Evolution
Is Cultural
Studies? A
Studies,"
Sparks,
The Cultural
Reader, ed. John Storey
(London: Arnold,
1996), pp. 14-30; Simon During,
Studies Reader
The Uses of Literacy
(London: Routledge,
(New
1999); Richard
Hoggart,
Culture and Soci
Brunswick,
Publishers,
N.J.: Transaction
1991); and Raymond Williams,
ety, 1780-1?50
(New York: Columbia
Press, 1983).
University
15
http://wwwnew.towson.edu/clst/.
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6o
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
MARCH
2OO7
the sweeping
(and often breathless)
self-definitions,
programs
Despite
and readers in cultural studies tend toward the literary and the contem
from programs that often grew out of the
porary, as might be expected
to
of
Simon During's
introduction
theory wing
English departments.
Studies Reader notes first that the field's focus is culture, but
the study of contemporary
then adds, "more particularly,
culture."16 A
are included
some course
in the general
few historians
and
readers,
same
also
include
the
about
and
"contemporary
descriptions
language
historical"
that the program definitions
do. But it is, not surprisingly,
in cultural studies materials
that there
primarily
produced by historians
ismuch concern with the deep past, that is, the past before the inven
The Cultural
are often specifically
These materials
framed as "cul
a reification
that has both benefits and detri
tural history," however,
nature of some studies of culture, but
it highlights
the historical
ments;
that is not cultural, while
also implies that there is some history
the
of cultural studies imply no such limits.
definitions
tion of television.
use a highly gendered metaphor?that
I don't think, therefore?to
cultural studies is quite the white knight and unifier that it represents
is shared by some of the historians
and
itself as being. That sentiment
most
with
the
who
who have been
associated
field, yet
anthropologists
nature. Lynn Hunt,
to stress its problematic
continue
for example,
was
in
the 1990s, has
whose The New Cultural History
required reading
more recently published Beyond theCultural Turn.11 The anthropologist
in
goes even further, putting culture in quotation marks
Sherry Ortner
in quotation marks
her edited volume The Fate of "Culture."l8 Things
or Jacksonian
?the
Athenian
"Enlightenment,"
"democracy"?are
clearly
things
that
raise questions,
not
answer
them
or make
them
moot.
if cultural studies can't provide a unified-field
theory, and most
not
most
women's
does
involve
and
and gender
history
gender,
on
is
United
much
focuses
the
there
States,
promise of inter
history
to
I
I
like
think there is, and would
end with several examples
change?
I see this promise becoming
of work in which
reality, work that brings
gender, and sexual
together world history and the history of women,
as world
present themselves
ity.Most of these studies do not explicitly
So
world
16
Studies Reader, p. i.
During, Cultural
17
of California
Press,
ed., The New Cultural History
Lynn Hunt,
(Berkeley: University
of Cal
the Cultural Turn (Berkeley: University
Bonnell)
1989) and (with Victoria
Beyond
ifornia Press, 1999).
18
of
ed., The Fate of "Culture": Geertz and Beyond
(Berkeley: University
Sherry Ortner,
California
Press,
1999).
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Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
but they use concepts
history,
in world
influential
extremely
tiers, migration,
transnational,
and the History
ofWomen
61
or
investigate
topics that have been
fron
encounters,
borderlands,
history:
and
national
and regional
identities,
heterogeneity.
Manning
colonialism
are already
is absolutely
and post
right that studies of colonialism
seem to be leading the way?so
much
so, in fact, that we
in work on gender and
into revision
and self-criticism
sHistory
The Winter
colonialism.
2003 issue of the Journal ofWomen
was a special issue: "Revising
the Experiences
of Colonized
Women:
Indonesia,
India, Igbo
Beyond Binaries," with articles on Australia,
issue also had a sep
and the U.S. Midwest.19 That
land, Mozambique,
section on historians,
of women
and
sources, and historiography
in
and
India
that
modern
"dissolving"
"rethinking"
gender
emphasized
various boundaries.
It is not surprising that this section focused par
areas, South Asia has seen the
ticularly on India, for among colonized
arate
most
of India, including Tanika Sarkar,
historians
Manu
have developed
and
Goswami,
Visweswaran,
insightful
construction
in India
of
and
national
the
of
gender
identity
analyses
era
often
horrific
and
the
colonial
and
the
continued,
violent,
during
in particular
of these constructions
repercussions
today.20 Sarkar
research.
Feminist
Kamala
highlights
sometimes
devoted mother,
the role of female figures?the
expected
as
Mother
but
also
the loving and
India,
conceptualized
the theoretical
nationalist
Though
iconography.
sacrificing wife?in
in this scholarship
is postcolonial,
Sarkar and Visweswaran
framework
to
of postcolonial
also take subaltern
studies and much
scholarship
a
as
of
task for viewing
actual women
"eternal
feminine,"
type
largely
that denies women
and abject, an essentialism
victimized
agency and
turns gender into a historical
not a dynamic
constant,
category.
19
Claire C. Robertson
and Nupur Chaudhuri,
the Experiences
of Col
eds., "Revising
onized Women:
14, no. 4 (Win
Beyond Binaries,"
special issue, Journal ofWomen's History
ter 2003).
20
Tanika Sarkar, Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation:
Community,
Religion and Cultural Nation
alism (New Delhi:
Indiana University
Permanent
and
Press, 2001)
Black; Bloomington:
in Hindu Rashtra," Economic and Polit
"Semiotics
and Women
Children
of Terror: Muslim
icalWeekly,
Manu Goswami,
India: From Colonial
13 July 2002, pp. 2872-2876;
Producing
to National
of Chicago
and Kamela
Press, 2004);
Economy
University
Space (Chicago:
Nationalist
"Small Speeches,
Subaltern
Gender:
Visweswaran,
Ideology and Its Historiog
on South Asian History and Society, ed. Shahid Amin
raphy," in Subaltern Studies IX: Writings
and Dipesh
For more
Press,
(Delhi: Oxford
University
1996), pp. 83-125.
Chakrabarty
see Temma
and colonialism,
and
"Revolution,
Nationalism,
reading on gender
Kaplan,
to Gender History,
in A Companion
ed. Teresa A. Meade
and Merry E.
Anti-Imperialism,"
and Mrinalini
"Gender
Wiesner-Hanks
pp. 170-185;
Sinha,
(London:
Blackwell,
2004),
in Smith, Women's
and Nation"
pp. 229-274.
History,
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62
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
MARCH
2OO7
large number of works on India has led some scholars of colo
to argue that Indian history has become
the master
subaltern
and that Indian women
have
iconic of
somehow
become
narrative,
Iwas not surprised to find the cover image
"gendered postcolonialism."
on a recent issue of Radical History Review, an issue titled "Two, Three,
The
nialism
a photo
Worlds:
Radical Methodologies
for Global History,"
two
of
Indian
the
environmentalists
Bee and
Rashida
women,
graph
sense
Devi
Shukla.21
This
choice
of
makes
image
given the
Champa
in the issue, which
lead article
focuses on the aftermath
of Bhopal,
in global environmen
and given the powerful
role of Indian women
two
tal movements.
with
these
Vandana
Shiva has
women,
(Along
on
issues
become
of
and
the
prominent
biodiversity
especially
global
Many
But it does reinforce
the iconography.
to do justice to the many
be impossible
studies of
some excellent
recent work on
like to mention
other parts of the world.22 Gender
and nationalism
has clearly been a
area
with
of
edited
collections
and
key
scholarship,
monographs.23
in many of the new col
There are articles on gender and nationalism
lections on nationalism,
and a special issue in 2000 of the new journal
ization of resources.)
it would
Because
I would
South Asia,
titled "The Awkward
Nations
and Nationalism
Gender
Relationship:
s
Feminist Review, Gender and History,
and Nationalism."
and Women
Studies International Forum have all had special issues on nationalism,
on global
in the new collections
and there are chapters on nationalism
as
s
in
Bonnie
Women
such
Smith's
Per
Global
gender history,
History
to Gender History.
and my Companion
spective, and in Teresa Meade
is
is going both ways, as it must:
the interp?n?tration
Thus
gender
21
Duane
and Ian Christopher
eds., "Two, Three, Many Worlds:
Fletcher,
J. Corpis
for Global History,"
Radical Methodologies
issue, Radical History Review 91 (Win
special
ter 2005).
22
see Barbara Ramusack,
For surveys of recent work on South Asia,
G?raldine
Forbes,
in Modern
and Antoinette
"Women
and Gender
India: His
Burton,
Sanjam Ahluwalia,
and Historiography,"
torians, Sources,
14, no. 4 (2003); Nupur
Journal ofWomen's
History
in South
and Colonialism
Gender
and Southeast
"Clash of Cultures:
Asia";
Chaudhuri,
in Twentieth
of Gender:
"Frameworks
Feminism
and Nationalism
Molony,
inMeade
and 513-539.
and Wiesner-Hanks,
Asia,"
pp. 430-444
Companion,
and Catherine
See, e.g., Ida Blom, Karen Hagemann,
Hall,
eds., Gendered Nations:
in the Long Nineteenth
Interna
Nationalisms
and Gender Order
(Oxford: Oxford
Century
and Barbara
Century
23
and Minoo Moallem,
eds., Between Woman
tional, 2000); Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcon,
and the State (Durham, N.C.: Duke Uni
and Nation: Nationalisms,
Transnational
Feminisms,
Aamir Mufti,
Ella Sho
(Anne McClintock,
versity Press,
1999); Social Text Collective
Liaisons: Gender, Nation,
and Postcolonial
hat),
eds., Dangerous
Perspectives
(Minneapolis:
of Minnesota
Gender and Nation
Press, 1997); Nira Yuval-Davis,
(London: Sage
University
Publications,
1997);
and Gender
Privilege,
2000).
and Elizabeth Thompson,
Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights,
in French Syria and Lebanon
(New York: Columbia
University
Paternal
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Press,
Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
and the History
ofWomen 63
into
of nationalism,
and nationalism
it into considerations
making
construction
of nationalism
and the
of gender. The
considerations
are important themes in this
communities
imagined nature of national
are viewed as important agents in that construction,
work, but women
to show up as a
is also beginning
nations
do result. Gender
and actual
as
new
in
such
the
collection
transnationalism,
category of analysis
by
s Human
Hesford
and Wendy
Kozol, Just Advocacy? Women
Wendy
and the
Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation,
new journal Meridians:
Feminism, Race Transnationalism.2*
construction
of gendered
ethnoracial
has been
categories
strong area of research,
including Jane Merritt's At the Cross
and
roads: Indians & Empires on a Mid-Atlantic
Frontier,
ijoo-ij6^
Muddied Waters: Race, Region, and Local History
Nancy Appelbaum's
in Colombia,
is also the focus of Susan Kellogg's
This
1846-1Q48.25
The
another
in Colonial
Mexican
Images of Race
"Depicting Mestizaje: Gendered
Texts" and Martha Hodes's
Power
"The Mercurial Nature
and Abiding
of Race: A Transnational
Family Story."26 Some of this work, and much
is about discourse
of the scholarship on gender in colonial South Asia,
and representation?in
this Gerda Lerner would not be pleased?but
much of it is explicitly
feminist work
part of the burgeoning
political,
on gender and the state.
Studies
that are clearly in what we usually think of as the realm of
two articles from
social history are fewer, but here I would highlight
both about North American
last year in the Journal ofWorld History,
on
women
in Japan: Manako
women's
establish
missionary
Ogawa's
ment of a settlement house in Tokyo right after World War
I and Karen
on the World YWCA
to occupied
visitation
Garner's
Japan right after
World
War
24
Wendy
Transnational
II.27 Jennifer L. Morgan's
Hesford
Feminisms,
Laboring Women:
Reproduction
and
and Wendy
Women's
Human
Kozol,
eds., Just Advocacy?
Rights,
and the Politics of Representation
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Uni
versity Press,
25
Nancy
2005).
Muddied Waters:
Race, Region, and
Appelbaum,
Press, 2003); and
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University
1846-1948
roads: Indians & Empires on a Mid-Atlantic
Frontier,
ijoo-ij6$
North Carolina
Press, 2003).
26
Susan Kellogg,
Gendered
"Depicting Mestizaje:
Images
can Texts," Journal ofWomen's
12, no. 3 (2000): 69-92;
History
Local History
Jane Merritt,
(Chapel Hill:
in Colombia,
At
the Cross
University
of
in Colonial
Mexi
of Race
and Martha
Hodes
"The
and Abiding
Power of Race: A Transnational
Nature
Family Story," American
Historical
Review
108, no. 1 (2003): 84-118.
27
Karen Garner,
and Postwar Reconstruction:
The World
"Global Feminism
YWCA
to Occupied
Visitation
and
15 (2004):
191-228;
Japan, 1947," Journal of World History
in Downtown
Manako
"'Hull-House'
of a Settlement
Ogawa,
Tokyo: The Transplantation
into Japan and the North
House
from the United
States
American
Women,
Missionary
Mercurial
1919-1945,"
Journal
of World
History
15 (2004):
359-388.
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JOURNAL
64
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
MARCH
2007
inNew World Slavery explores the way that work and reproduc
Gender
tion both shaped the economic
value, gendered
identity, and day-to
women
in
New World.28 The
the
West
Africa
and
lives
of
African
day
and production
trade
of
ways gendered
patterns
consumption
shaped
over very long periods emerge inMichelle
Maskiell's
worldwide
study
of Kashmiri
shawls and Maxine
response
Berg's analysis of European
to Asian
of
the thematic essays in Teresa Meade
Several
luxury goods.29
toGender History address social history topics: labor,
and my Companion
and Anne Walt
the family, popular religion, schooling.30 M. J.Maynes
or
to
ner provide
do comparative
of how
suggestions
global social his
on
tory in several articles focusing
marriage.31
but even a more com
This brief survey is certainly not exhaustive,
as
as
not
it should be, and would also be skewed
be
long
plete list would
of
issues: race, political
toward certain
rights, slavery, representations
in
is far less social and economic
the "Other." There
history
gendered
trends are a reflection of
than one would expect. These
global history
as a whole,
in history
of course; one can hardly
what has happened
as
a
seen
"fad" now for thirty years to
expect a subfield that has been
as I
is the newest
trend. But they are also a reflection,
avoid whatever
more
and gender being
of women
eager to
argued earlier, of historians
the French,
take on what seem to be less likely fits?the
Renaissance;
Restora
the Meiji
and Scientific
Revolutions;
Haitian,
American,
sure that the stories of formalized power relationships
tion?to
make
men.
and of intellectual
change do not remain stories of ungendered
wrote
and Kathryn Kish Sklar
As Linda Kerber, Alice Kessler-Harris,
s History,
to U.S. History as Women
the most
in the introduction
sig
serves
to
task has been "to discover how gender
nificant
legitimize par
to meld
into
these
of power and knowledge,
ticular constructions
accepted
That
practice and state policy."32
point still needs to be made,
for gender
remains
what
Randi
28
inNew World
Slav
and Gender
Reproduction
Laboring Women:
Jennifer L. Morgan,
of Pennsylvania
Press, 2004).
ery (Philadelphia:
University
29
and Empires,
Shawls
Kashmir:
Michelle
Jour
1500-2000,"
Maskiell,
"Consuming
and Maxine
nal ofWorld History
13 (2002): 27-66;
Berg, "In Pursuit of Luxury: Global His
Past and Present 182 (2004):
in the Eighteenth
Goods
Century,"
tory and British Consumer
85-142.
30
and Wiesner-Hanks,
Meade
Companion.
31
in aWorld
B. Waltner,
"Women's Life Cycle Transitions
and Anne
Mary JoMaynes
His
in
Women's
and
China
Historical
Journal
of
Europe,"
Marriage
Comparing
Perspective:
as World
in Smith, Women's
and "Family History
11-21,
History,"
tory 12, no. 4 (2001):
History,
32
Women's
pp. 48-91.
Linda Kerber,
History
Alice
(Chapel
Kessler-Harris,
Hill: University
Kish Sklar, eds., U.S. History
and Kathryn
Carolina
of North
Press, 1995), p. 7.
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as
Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
and the History
ofWomen 65
in global political
and
has called an "expertise of the margins"
intellectual history, where there are huge areas that have not been ana
or gender, to say nothing
of sexu
lyzed at all in terms of either women
ality.33 (There are now nearly thirty books on the history of English
so won't someone please, please do the manly Mongols?34)
masculinity,
Warne
But
I think that world history might provide historians
of women,
gen
to also work on social history
der, and sexuality with an opportunity
seeming too fuddy-duddy.
topics without
33
Randi Warne,
Current Perspectives,
lanum Press, 2000),
34 In the oral
such studies,
of these have
J.A. Mangan
on Religion:
in Secular Theories
the Gender-Critical
Turn,"
"Making
Rothstein
Museum
Tuscu
ed. Tim Jensen and Mikhail
(Copenhagen:
pp. 249-260.
of this paper, I estimated
that there were more
than ten
presentation
to count them, which
and then I decided
almost tripled my estimate. Many
a world history angle, but their primary focus is on British men. They
include
in Britain and America,
1800
Middle-Class
and James Walvin,
Masculinity
1940 (New York: St. Martin's,
Hyam,
Empire and Sexuality: The British
1987); Ronald
and John
Manchester
Press,
(Manchester:
Experience
University
1990); Michael
Roper
in Britain since 1800 (London: Routledge,
Tosh, eds., Manful Assertions: Masculinities
1991);
and the British Organization
Man
Since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford
Michael
Roper, Masculinity
Masculinities
and Identities (Cambridge:
Cam
Press, 1994); David
Buchbinder,
University
the Victorian
Press; 1994); Donald Hall, Muscular
bridge University
Christianity:
Embodying
Soldier Heroes: Brit
Press, 1994); Graham
Dawson,
Age (Cambridge: Cambridge
University
ishAdventure,
(London: Routledge,
Empire, and the Imaging of Masculinity
1994); James Eli
Dandies
and Desert
Saints: Styles of Victorian Masculinity
Adams,
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell,
in the Colonial Con
1995); Anne McClintock,
Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality
test (London: Routledge,
The "Manly English
Sinha, Colonial Masculinity:
1995); Mrinalini
in the Late Nineteenth
man" and the "Effeminate Bengali"
Manchester
(Manchester:
Century
theMale: Men's Bodies, Britain, and the
Press, 1995); Joanna Bourke, Dismembering
University
Great War
and Stephen
(London: Reaktion
Books,
eds.,
1996); Mark Breitenberg
Orgel,
in Early Modern
Anxious
Press,
Masculinity
England
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
in the Eigh
National
Cohen,
1996); Mich?le
Identity and Language
Fashioning Masculinity:
teenth Century
Forever England: Reflec
(London: Routledge,
1996); Jonathan Rutherford,
tions on Race, Masculinity
and Empire (London: Lawrence & Wishart,
Krish
1997); Revathi
The Economy
of Michigan
naswamy,
(Ann Arbor: University
Effeminism:
of Colonial Desire
in Nine
Mansex
Fine: Religion, Manliness
and Imperialism
Press,
1998); David Alderson,
British Culture
Manchester
Press,
(Manchester:
1998); Tim
teenth-Century
University
Hitchcock
and Mich?le
1660-1800
Cohen,
(London: Addison Wes
English Masculinities,
in Victorian
and theMiddle-Class
Place: Masculinity
Home
ley, 1999); John Tosh, A Man's
Conn.:
Yale University
The Trials of
(New Haven,
Press, 1999); Angus McLaren,
England
of Chicago
Press,
Masculinity:
Policing Sexual Boundaries,
i8jo-ig^o
(Chicago: University
in Early Modem
Sex and Marriage
1999); Elizabeth
Foyster Wiley, Manhood
England: Honour,
Kent, Gender and Power in Britain,
(London: Longman,
1999); Susan Kingsley
1640-1 ggo
inVictorian
and Spirituality
(London: Routledge,
Bradstock,
ed., Masculinity
1999); Andrew
Culture
(New York: St. Martin's,
2001); Michael
Staging Masculinities:
Mangan,
History,
The Three-Piece
2002); David Kuchta,
Gender, Performance
(London:
Palgrave Macmillan,
Suit and Modern Masculinity:
of California
Press,
England,
1550-1850
(Berkeley: University
in Early Modern
2002); Alexandra
(Oxford: Oxford
Shepard, Meanings
of Manhood
England
and the Boys' Story Paper in Britain: A Cultural
Press, 2003); Kelly Boyd, Manliness
University
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
Biberman, Masculin
History
1855-1Q40
2003); Matthew
and Early Modern English Literature: From the Satanic to the Effeminate Jew
ity, Anti-Semitism
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66
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
MARCH
2OO7
's survey of recent work in U.S. women's
history finds that
on
women
and
dissertations
African
American
tend to
books, articles,
on
focus much more on women's
and
than
class
the
does
organizations
rest of U.S. women's
to
in
and
"more
be
the
reali
interested
history,
ties of lives of the past than they are in interpretation
and representa
Lerner
seen
first of these areas?women's
organizations?has
a
so
as
from
of
those
many
many
perspective,
world-history
had a global reach and mission.
Gendered
class analysis
organizations
one where
is
from a global perspective,
another
and
matter,
however,
intersection
the insights gained through
the
of gender,
investigating
in constructions
and race, and the role of gender
of the
sexuality,
can
nation
and national
be
fruitfully applied.
identity,
We may now be at a point where
the opposite paths of world his
tion."35 The
studies
and gender history?one
toward convergence,
and
tory and women's
the other toward divergence?could
be coming together. In his discus
sion of the emphasis on convergence
in world history, David Northrup
commented
that this may have been an overly "cherished
framework,"
now needs more attention
from world historians.36
and that divergence
of women
On the other side, historians
and gender are clearly more
to instances of encounter
to pay particular
attention
and con
willing
as is clear from the exploding
on gen
amount of scholarship
vergence,
der and empire. Increased
between world history and the
interchange
can help develop what we
of women,
gender, and sexuality
history
to call the "new, new social history." This would not be
choose
might
the breathlessly
totalizing unified field theory that cultural studies pre
sents itself as (what the physicist Michio
Katu has called "an equation
an inch long that would allow us to read the mind of God"),
but one
on
the strengths of many
that builds
subfields: the tradition of collab
orative and collective
work in radical and feminist history; the empha
sis on interaction,
and connection
from world history;
the
exchange,
focus on the agency of everyday people from the "old" new social his
tory; the attention
to hegemony,
hierarchy,
and essentialism
from queer
The English
1600-1750:
2004); Thomas A. King, The Gendering
ofMen,
of Wisconsin
Press, 2004); Paul R. Deslandes,
Oxbridge Men:
University
and the Undergraduate
Indiana
British Masculinity
Experience,
1850-1?20
(Bloomington:
inNineteenth-Century
and Masculinities
Press, 2004); and John Tosh, Manliness
University
Britain: Essays on Gender, Family, and Empire (Harlow, England:
Pearson Longman,
2005).
in liter
and it does not include studies of masculinity
This
list is probably not exhaustive,
at
which
would
add
another
least
ature,
thirty.
35
Lerner, "U.S. Women's
p. 19.
History,"
36
"Globalization."
Northrup,
(London: Ashgate,
Phallus (Madison:
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Wiesner-Hanks:
World
History
and the History
ofWomen 67
theory; the stress on dif
theory, critical race theory, and postcolonial
of analysis
between multiple
ference and on intersections
categories
are
all
lines
of
that offer
These
from women's
interchange
history.
are
two
and
lenses
that have
"Gender"
much
much,
promise.
"global"
to re-vision history
in the last several
been used, largely separately,
and
decades. Putting them together allows us to create both telescopes
new
never
seen
see
to
we've
find
further
and
microscopes,
things
before,
and to see very
familiar
things
in completely
new ways.
Postscript
this paper in January 2005 and revised it over the follow
it was going into press, the 2006 World History Associa
As
ing year.
at Long Beach.
tion conference was held at California
State University
were
to issues
entire
sessions
At that conference,
there
three
devoted
I presented
of gender and/or sexuality,
and several additional
individual
papers;
one of the sessions was specifically
to look at "confluences"
organized
of gender and world history. Papers
included analyses of brand-new
to familiar topics, some from areas of con
topics and new approaches
cern to social historians,
such as the family and work, and others from
as
constructions
cultural history,
such
of imperial encoun
gendered
ters. It is clear that the creative
interchange
I call for here has already
and world history
Ihmeellinen!
huzzah!
Fabuloso! Wunderbar!
between
gender history
begun, and to that, I say
Odorokubeki!
Csod?s!
Ajabu!
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