Scottish Women’s and Gender History and Women Historians in Scotland: Past, Present and Future Directions

Abstract

The Royal Historical Society’s G ender Equality report in 2018, as well as a number of smaller surveys, suggests that while women now make up a significant proportion of those studying advanced degrees in history, they remain under-represented both in academic institutions (especially at higher levels) and in journals and similar high-esteem publications. Women’s and gender history has been one subfield where this is not the case; if both men and women have written on this topic, women have largely dominated the field and women’s and gender history remains a significant site where women’s authoritative knowledge has been prized and their leadership recognised. This special issue celebrates Scottish women’s and gender history as a domain of history where questions of power and authority, inclusion and exclusion, work, labour and knowledge production have already been considered through a gendered lens. Our authors bring case studies from a diverse range of time periods and historical contexts, but they share a commitment to central questions of how women—throughout history and as historians—have produced space for their authoritative knowledges and practices, how these might be nurtured or constrained, and the ongoing implications for gender equality.