“Women on top” and the ascent of men: A brief discussion of the advance and advantages of gender as an analytical tool
“Women on top” and the ascent of men: A brief discussion of the advance and advantages of gender as an analytical tool

Summary/Abstract: Most historians today would agree on the value of gender as an interpretive category in historical narratives. Gender as a relational concept allows us to trace the often hidden connections between public discourse, expectations of male and female behaviour, the opportunities and roles open to men and women in the social, political and religious sphere, and the varying distributions of power that resulted from these complex constructs. Gender has also been instrumental in opening up glimpses onto the mundane, with historians becoming increasingly interested in exploring the daily lives of those men and women who did not belong to the upper ranks of society. By asking seemingly straight-forward questions about, for example, how lay and religious women engaged in religious reform, in what ways men and women participated in politics at local level, or how people felt and thought about the female body, historians of gender have made important contributions to even the most conservative historical discussions like state building, confessional history, or the legacies of the British Empire in the East and West. And yet, despite the obvious progress and even success that the integration of gender has achieved, some obvious questions about its uses and application remain. Colloquia has invited four eminent historians to ponder these questions and more.

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