Gender History in the Institute of Historical Research Library

We're sometimes asked 'where is the gender history section?' As the IHR's collections are arranged geographically, by period and  type of material, items on gender history are scattered across the library according to their subject. This guide brings a few examples together. The material falls within the IHR's collection areas of bibliographies and archive guides, reference works, historiography, published primary sources and periodicals. Although the Library holds a small number of secondary works, they are not actively collected. Our collections cover western Europe and its colonial history, from the C5th onwards. The items listed below are just a selection of the range of materal we hold, you can browse our full holdings on the catalogue. Some of our material is in closed-access- see further details.

Due to the nature of the subject, much of the material listed here is specifically on the history of women. We hold a much wider range of material which will include relevant material for research in this area - Calendars to manuscript collections in the National Archives and the Parliamentary Debates are just a couple of examples.

Bibliographies and Guides to archives

Useful as a starting point into sources on the subject, these range from broad to very specific subjects. These are usually at the start of the relevant classmark sequence, e.g. B.0 for British history, EF.0 for French history etc., although not for all collections.

• Oldfield, Sybil, Collective biography of women in Britain, 1550-1900 : a select annotated bibliography | British collection
• Pedersen, Diana, Changing women, changing history : a bibliography of the history of women in Canada | Colonial collection
• Cline, Cheryl, Women's diaries, journals, and letters : an annotated bibliography | General collection
• Las mujeres en la historia de España | Spanish collection
• Flour, Els, Jacques, Catherine  et al., Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de vrouwenbeweging in België | Low Countries collection
• Huls, Mary Ellen, United States government documents on women, 1800-1990 : a comprehensive bibliography | United States collection
• Kanner, Barbara, Women in English social history, 1800-1914 : a guide to research | British collection
• Kemble, Jean, American women in the twentieth century : a selective guide to materials in the British Library | United States collection
• Tillier, Annick, Des sources pour l'histoire des femmes : guide | French collection

Reference works/ biographical dictionaries

• Salem, Dorothy, African American women : a biographical dictionary | United States collection
• Ogilvie, Marilyn and Harvey, Joy, The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century | General/United States collection
• Ewan, Elizabeth, The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004 | Scottish collection
• Hendry, Maggy, The Palgrave Macmillan dictionary of women's biography | General collection
• Cosner, Shaaron and Cosner, Victoria, Women under the Third Reich : a biographical dictionary | German collection
• Harper, Judith, Women during the Civil War : an encyclopedia | United States collection

Historiography/ Historical Methods

• Rose, Sonya, What is Gender History?
• Downs, Laura Lee, Writing Gender History
• Meade, Teresa and Wiesner-Hanks, Merry, A companion to gender history
• Alberti, Johanna, Gender and the historian
• Bennett, Judith, History matters : patriarchy and the challenge of feminism

Published sources

We hold a range of editions of sources which give insight into the ways gender was perceived and experienced in different periods and places of history, including many editions of letters and diaries of individuals. A few examples specifically on the subject of gender are listed below, but many more of our resources will also be highly relevant:

• Etherington-Wright, Christine, Gender, professions and discourse : early twentieth-century women's autobiography | British history
• Winegarten, Ruthe, Black Texas women : a sourcebook : documents, biographies, timeline | United States collection
• Lewis, Jane, Before the vote was won : arguments for and against women's suffrage | British collection
• Amt, Emilie, Women's lives in medieval Europe : a sourcebook | General collection
• Szurmuk, Mónica, Women in Argentina : early travel narratives | Latin American collection
• Argula von Grumbach : a woman's voice in the Reformation | German collection
• Kierner, Cynthia, Southern women in revolution, 1776-1800 : personal and political narratives | United States collection
• Hurley, Beryl, Fisherton Anger Gaol : matron's journal : female prisoners 1849-1853 | English local collection
• Peniston, William and Erber, Nancy,  Queer lives : men's autobiographies from nineteenth-century France | French collection
• A Victorian family : as seen through the letters of Louise Creighton to her mother, 1872-1880 | British collection
• Liddington, Jill, Female fortune : land, gender and authority : the Anne Lister diaries and other writings 1833-36 | British collection
• Couchman, Jane and Crabb, Ann, Women's letters across Europe, 1400-1700 : form and persuasion | General collection

Periodicals

• Gender and History
• Journal of Women's History
• Women's History Review
• Gender and Society (we don't hold this in print format, but it is available electronically via the Senate House Libraries' shared subscription)

The subject is also covered in a variety of other journals such as Journal of Social History, Oral History and Family and Community History. Current copies of our journals are on open access in the library, and back issues can be ordered from the stack. Many are also available online within the building via the links on the catalogue entry. BBIH and JSTOR are examples of the online databases that can be used to locate journal articles.

Theses

For history theses across other universities, see History Online below. See further information on theses holdings at the IHR library. Here is a selected list:

• Roche, Juanita, The elite in Imperial Germany : family, class, and gender (London, 1996)
• Crowley, Mark, Women workers in the General Post Office, 1939-1945 : gender conflict or political emancipation? (London, 2010)
• Beresford, Kathryn, 'Men of Kent' : Gender and Nationhood in Regional Perspective, 1815-1837 (London, 2007)
• Engels, Dagmar, The changing role of women in Bengal 1849-1905 (SOAS, 1987)
• Stone, Rachel, Masculinity, nobility and the Moral Instruction of the Carolingian Lay Elite (London, 2006)

Electronic Resources

A full list of our electronic resources is available at http://www.history.ac.uk/library/collections/eresources. Below are a few examples of resources that could be useful for this subject (most are available onsite in the IHR or via subscription only):

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Bibliography of British and Irish History
• Victorian Popular Culture
• Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets
• Reviews in History: browse reviews of books on 'Gender and Women' (freely available online)
• History Online: browse theses, books and grants by category 'Gender and Women' (freely available online)

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