Category: Gender and Sexuality Studies

The Surprising Roots of Women’s History in the United States

03/08/2013

The women’s histories that were produced in the late eighteenth century promoted an ideal of domestic citizenship for women that was valued as a break from a less advanced past, and hence a sign of modernity, as well as a distinguishing characteristic of national virtue at a time when a market economy and new forms of political organization were reshaping the countries of Europe and the New World.

Beyond “Half the Sky”

10/19/2012

Even if you take issue with the celebrity cameos and reporting style in the recent smash PBS documentary, Half the Sky, you can’t deny that the program increased the awareness of women’s rights, one of today’s paramount moral challenges. For a deeper understanding of women’s human rights, here are some additional resources by Penn Press to help navigate this complex issue:

Medieval Monday: Five Myths about Medieval Women and Power

08/27/2012

The Middle Ages isn’t generally thought of as a period friendly to women at all, much less to powerful ones. Still, we’re all familiar with a handful of medieval and early modern women who had extraordinary influence: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of Castile, Elizabeth I of England. The subject of my book, Berenguela of Castile, is one of their lesser-known peers. But the focus on women like Berenguela as “exceptions to the rule” has the strange effect of reinforcing old myths about medieval women.