Gender, Citizenship and Subjectivity: Some Historical and Theoretical Considerations

Abstract

Because the French Revolution failed to produce a widely acceptable definition of citizenship, the limits of manhood suffrage in the early nineteenth century were uncertain. Social practices, in particular scientific activity, served as claims to the status of citizen. By engaging in scientific pastimes, bourgeois Frenchmen asserted that they possessed the rationality and autonomy that liberal theorists associated both with manliness and with civic capacity. However, bourgeois science was never a stable signifier of masculinity or of competence. As professional science emerged, the bourgeois amateur increasingly became the feminised object of satire rather than the sober andmeritorious citizen‐scientist.

Children of Exception: Redefining Categories of Illegality and Citizenship in Canada

“…To examine the complexity of children's citizenship, as defined in the Canadian legislation, two subfields within this literature are particularly relevant. The first perspective draws on the extensive feminist critique on the exclusion of women from citizenship (Canning and Rose, ). As occurred in the past for women, children are barred from full citizenship due to their alleged dependence and incapacity to make rational and informed decisions (Breen, ).…”

Mary Malone's Lessons: A Narrative of Citizenship in Federation Australia

“…23 Mary's roughly organised selections, with their idiosyncrasies and omissions, record her attempts to construct individuality and an independent cast of mind; they also reflect Canning and Rose's conclusion about the essays under their editorship -'In nearly every case, citizenship for women remained partial, improvised, or contingent'. 24 The contingent and improvised nature of Mary's selections reflects the insecurity of Mary's Irish Catholic identity and her attempts to rehearse and commemorate this identity form the most prominent and consistent theme in her exercise book. By the late nineteenth century, Irish Catholics in Australia felt that they had a right to a place in the Australian community, although they understood that their rights, and their identity as citizens, were not quite legitimate.…”

“…78 Introducing a special issue of Gender & History, Canning and Rose stressed the essential linkage between citizenship and subjectivity, noting, 'Our main interest is the process by which historical actors assigned meanings to the prescriptions and delineations of citizenship and hence became subjects in their encounters with citizenship laws, rhetorics and practices'. 79 Mary's exercise book describes the process of a young woman being created and creating herself as a subject and as a citizen, instigating her own inquiry into her place in colonial society. Her readings stimulated social action and community participation as a nun, joining her faith to a profound act of citizenship.…”