HST61020 Women and Power 2023-24
30 credits, Semester two
Module leaders 2023-24: Danica Summerlin & Anita Klingler
Listed on all history MA programmes.
Module summary
This module explores the roles women have played within and through structures and discourses of power: as wielders of office, as victims of persecution, and as agents of cultural change.
The module uses case studies from particular historical contexts - potentially ranging from the medieval to the modern - to engage with the methodological challenge of identifying female agency in the historical record.
It draws on a range of theoretical approaches and on written and material forms of evidence to enable you to reach your own insights.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, you will be able to:
Show a broad understanding of the range of women’s experience in specific historical contexts through the analysis of case studies
Articulate and critique current and historical approaches to the topic
Demonstrate advanced skills in historical research and analysis
Uncover and explore female agency in the historical record in methodologically rigorous ways
Assessment methods
Assessment type - % of final mark
4000 word essay - 80%
Engagement and participation task(s) - 20%
You will complete a 4000 word essay on a topic related to one of the module's key themes. You will define your own essay topic in discussion with your tutor.
You will also complete an engagement and participation exercise based on the learning activities and environment for the module. This task will be set by the module leader but may include activities such as presentations, reflective seminar diaries, contributions to discussion forums or collaborative documents.
Additional learning and teaching information
Teaching and indicative seminar plan 2023-24:
The module will be taught in ten, two-hour classes. You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutors in order to discuss your assessment for this module.
As well as seminars introducing you to key concepts - such as ‘women’s history’ and ‘agency’ - there will be seven thematic seminars, which will look at women, power, and agency in different settings and reflect the thematic interests of your tutors. For each theme, you will consider case studies from different time periods, selected by your tutors, asking how women’s power and agency can be analysed and understood in each of those settings, in order to provide broad-based historical comparisons. Across the module, however, you will be encouraged to draw on your own research and thematic interests to address the question of how women were able to exercise power and agency, and how historians can analyse and understand their use of both.
Below is an indicative list of the seminar schedule for 2023-24.
Introduction to the module and ‘Women’s History’
On Agency
Women as Political Leaders
Women and Marriage
Women and Education
Women and the Economy
Women and Medicine
Women and Exercise
Women and the City
Conclusion
Selected Reading
Elisheva Baumgarten, ‘A Separate People’? Some Directions for Comparative Research on Medieval Women’, Journal of Medieval History 34 (2008), 212-28.
Theresa Earenfight, ‘Medieval Queenship’, History Compass 15.3 (2017).
Anne E. Lester, ‘In the Singular and Plural Cases: The Lives of Medieval European Women’, Journal of Women’s History 23 (2011), 187-200.
Esther Breitenbach and Pat Thane (eds), Women and Citizenship in Britain and Ireland in the Twentieth Century: What Difference Did the Vote Make? (2010).
Marc Calvini-Lefebvre and Laura Schwartz, 'Women in Britain since 1900: Evolution, Revolution or 'Plus ça change...'? Confronting Continuity in Women’s History', French Journal of British Studies, XXIII-1 (2018).
Krista Cowman, Women in British Politics c. 1689-1979 (London, 2010)
Kathryn Gleadle, ‘The Imagined Communities of Women’s History: Current Debates and Emerging Themes, A Rhizomatic Approach’, Women’s History Review, 22.4 (2013), 524-40.
Sue Morgan, ‘Theorising Feminist History: A Thirty-Year Retrospective’, Women’s History Review 18.3 (2009), 381-407.
Helen Pankhurst, Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women’s Rights—Then and Now (London, 2018)."