What does studying women in politics tell us about the past? Some historians, seeking to discover the patriarchal foundation of the state, have investigated the exclusion of women from positions of power in political, social, and economic life. Others have focused their attention on rediscovering the lost voices of ‘feminist’ icons. More recently, particularly within the broad discipline of cultural history, scholars have investigated how political institutions were influenced by gendered subjects, whose experience was in turn moulded by those gendered institutions.
This roundtable seeks to present key questions that face historians of political women today. We will suggest that the most promising lines of inquiry lie not in investigating simple cases of ‘patriarchal’ inclusion and exclusion, nor in recovering straightforwardly ‘feminist’ voices. Rather, our discussion will revolve around issues such as:
What can be learnt from women who manifest their agency by self-excluding from the traditional field of political power relations? How do we conceptualise the role of women who turned political exclusion into empowerment? How can we, or should we, categorise the ideas of women who express ‘feminist’ political aims though silence rather than action? How far can we stretch the term ‘feminist’ to fit historical actors before it breaks?
Is there a problem with using ‘women’s history’ as a historical category of analysis? Does it suggest a universality and an ahistoricity? On the other hand, once we start focusing on the fluidity of gender, will ‘women’s history’ lose its cohesiveness as a field? Does this matter?
The centrepiece of our roundtable will be the contribution of Professor Susan Pedersen, who has spent a distinguished career reflecting, among many other things, on the role of women and gender in the British Empire and the international order of nineteenth and twentieth century Europe. Professor Pedersen will discuss the appeal – but also the costs – of a democratic system for two suffragist women in late nineteenth-century Britain: Frances and Betty Balfour.
Chaired by Prof. Glenda Sluga, with brief contributions from Or Rosenboim (Jean Monnet Fellow), Elisavet Papalexopolou (HEC), Zala Pavšic, and Kathleen McCrudden Illert (Max Weber Fellows) before the floor is opened for discussion and debate.