By Joan Hinde Stewart (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1982–83) ‘Women seem to be destined solely for our pleasure. When they no longer have that attraction, they have lost everything’ (letter from Diderot to Sophie Volland, 1762). How typical was this view of the ‘older woman’ in the eighteenth century? What was it like for women of … Continued
Edited by Luis R. Corteguera (NHC Fellow, 2001–02) and Marta V. Vicente This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas … Continued
By Laura Gowing (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) This pioneering book explores for the first time how ordinary women of the early modern period in England understood and experienced their bodies. Using letters, popular literature, and detailed legal records from courts that were obsessively concerned with regulating morals, the book recaptures seventeenth-century popular understandings of sex and … Continued
By Anne Firor Scott (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1980–81) America's female benevolent societies took root in the 1790s. Initially founded on notions of Christian duty and hope of heavenly reward, these groups produced volunteers dedicated to providing aid to unfortunates in general and women and children in particular. Anne Frior Scott explores the history of these … Continued
By Bertram Wyatt-Brown (NHC Fellow, 1989–90; 1998–99) The Percys, one the most distinguished families in the South, are notable not only for their prominence in the political and economic development of the Mississippi Delta but also for their literary creativity. In The Literary Percys, noted historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown examines the role of gender and family history … Continued
By Monica H. Green (NHC Fellow, 1996–97) In this collection of seven major essays (one of them published here for the first time), Monica Green argues that a history of women's healthcare in medieval western Europe has not yet been written because it cannot yet be written – the vast majority of texts relating to … Continued
Edited by Matthew S. Gordon (NHC Fellow, 2011–12) and Kathryn A. Hain Concubines and Courtesans contains sixteen essays that consider, from a variety of viewpoints, enslaved and freed women across medieval and pre-modern Islamic social history. The essays bring together arguments regarding slavery, gender, social networking, cultural production (songs, poetry and instrumental music), sexuality, Islamic family … Continued
By Linda K. Kerber (NHC Fellow, 1990–91) This pioneering study redefines women’s history in the United States by focusing on civic obligations rather than rights. Looking closely at thirty telling cases from the pages of American legal history, Kerber’s analysis reaches from the Revolution, when married women did not have the same obligation as their … Continued
By Behnam Sadeghi (NHC Fellow, 2010–11) This pioneering study examines the process of reasoning in Islamic law. Some of the key questions addressed here include whether sacred law operates differently from secular law, why laws change or stay the same and how different cultural and historical settings impact the development of legal rulings. In order … Continued
Edited by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy (NHC Fellow, 2003–04) and Agatha Beins Established as an academic field in the 1970s, women’s studies is a relatively young but rapidly growing area of study. Not only has the number of scholars working in this subject expanded exponentially, but women’s studies has become institutionalized, offering graduate degrees and taking … Continued