Subject to Change: Theories and Paradigms of U.S. Feminist History

Abstract

This essay is an abridged and substantially revised translation of an article originally written in German to familiarize a German audience with the development of and the theoretical debates within U.S. women's history. As such, it does not proclaim to suggest new directions for research or to offer new conceptual models, but rather hopes to be useful as a survey of the many paradigms and perspectives employed by United States women's historians over the past approximately three decades. By taking as its leitmotif the notion of "difference," it traces the changing subjects of feminist history and argues that a diversity of approaches and topics is a strength in U.S. women's history.

The Search for Consilience among Gender Studies

“…Such knowledge is not absolute or true, but always relative. 2 While gender as a historiographic tool itself continues to be rethought, even criticized, 3 dismissing it as "backlash" is more dismissive than necessary. Without a critique of such formidable prior work, the chapter remains unconvincing.…”