Challenging dichotomies : theoretical and historical perspectives on women's studies in the humanities and social sciences

Abstract

Women's studies have come a long way. Precisely twenty years ago, the American historian Gerda Lerner wrote that "the striking fact about the historiography of women is the general neglect of the subject by historians". At that time, women as a subject were not only "hidden from history", but also hidden from the other humanities and social sciences. Scholarship was far from "objective" or "universal". Because it was based on male experience, placing men at the centre and as a measure of a] I things human, it left out half of humankind. In the past two decades, however, the situation has considerably changed. In an enormous (and enormously growing) body of scholarship women have been rendered visible. They have been placed at the centre and what women do, have to do, want to do has been re-evaluated. It has been re-evaluated in view of social, political and cultural change, of an improvement in women's situations and, more generally, in terms of a change towards more freedom and justice. But what was it, more precisely, that has been rendered visible by making women a subject of research? In a first step, it was their subjection, in a second step it was their subjectivity because women are not only victims, but they also actively shape their own lives and society.