Telling our stories: feminist debates and the use of oral history

Gendered economies: Transferring private gender roles into the public realm through rural community development

“…The biographic approach ''works outwards from the domestic instead of from the public inwards'' (Edwards and Ribbens, 1991, p. 487). Thus, the approach actively seeks to explore, validate, and even contest the dominant definitions of social, economic and political ideals that obscure experiences from wider view (Gluck, 1996;Sangster, 1998) so that ''the woman and not existing theory is considered the expert on her experience'' (Anderson and Jack, 1998, p. 166). This study is part of a small general movement towards this approach in the studying of rural lives, in particular the lives of women (for example, Inhetveen, 1990).…”

Accounting histories of women: beyond recovery?

“…Narratives could be used to explore gendered relations, power and oppression from the perspective of those who experienced them in the workplace and the home. Oral histories also offered scope for creating histories by and for women and determining research agendas which emanated directly from the testimony of women themselves (Sangster, 1994;Daley, 1998). While most historians would argue that the feminist herstory project as a counter to male-dominated history met with limited success, it appears to have become popularised as a form of women's history which comprises the collection and publication of biographies and life-experiences.…”

Oral History and Ethical Practice: Towards Effective Policies and Procedures

“…But it is also the historian_s job to analyze how race, class, and gender circumscribed women_s opportunities. To do so, historians face the ethical dilemma of imposing their frameworks on the reconstruction of women_s lives (Sangster, 1994). Rather than using oral histories as evidence of Bhow it was,^historians now recognize that this evidence merits the same critical and reflective analysis as written records.…”

“…Political commitment to ending inequality often shapes research programs involving oral history, but historians must still acknowledge that they use these personal memories in order to publish materials that ultimately advance their careers. Thus, historians benefit more directly from oral histories than those who share their life stories (Sangster, 1994).…”