Introductory description

This module considers the theory and practice of men’s and women’s participation in British economic, social and political life. Key themes include education, employment, citizenship and social reform.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction
2. Studying Gender History
3. Gender and the Enlightenment (Rousseau)
4. Gender and the Enlightenment (More and Wollstonecraft)
5. Property and Consumption
6. Work and Industrialisation
7. Anti-slavery
8. Philanthropy
9. Early nineteenth-century politics
10. Marriage and divorce
11. The family
12. Long essay workshop
13. Sexuality
14. Prostitution
15. Class, gender and education
16. Leisure
17. Politics after 1850
18. Women’s suffrage
19. Gender and Conflict
20. Interwar
21. Revision

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Development of critical and analytical study, writing and communication skills
• Critically evaluate sources for the study of women and gender
• Understand historical and theoretical interpretations of women and gender
• Presentation research in an imaginative and concise manner
• Develop written and oral communication skills
• Undertake bibliographic research
• Develop competency in using electronic resources for research and writing

Indicative reading list

 Chiara Beccalossi, Female Sexual Inversion (2011)
 Barbara Caine, English Feminism (1997)
 Kathryn Gleadle, British Women in the Nineteenth Century (2001)
 Philippa Levine, Victorian Feminism (2000)
 Karen O’Brien, Women and the Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain (2009)
 Jane Rendall, Gender War and Politics (2010)
 Jane Rendall, The Origins of Modern Feminism (1994)
 Susie Steinbach, Women in England, 1760-1914 (2005)
 John Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities (2004)
Modern Records Centre Extracts
Electronic Resources
 ECCO - Eighteenth Century Collections Online, an online corpus of texts published in Britain from 1700-1800
 Women Writers Online, 1400-1850 Full text searchable copies of texts from a range of women writers.
 British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/
 Old Bailey Online, a searchable site which gives the proceedings of the London court for the period after 1674 and is a wonderful source of the social history of the period: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
 Bibliography of British and Irish History
 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Newspapers, periodicals and other prints:
 The Times Digital Archive
 British Library Nineteenth Century Newspapers
 John Johnson Collection of Early Ephemera: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/
 See also the collection of broadside ballads: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ballads.htm
 The British Museum's prints and drawings: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx
 The Burney collection of newspapers
Parliamentary:
 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers 1801-2003: see Library e-sources page (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/tealea/arts/history/electronicresources/) for direct access and access via Athens. Full text is searchable for 9.5 million pages for over 184,000 parliamentary papers.
 BOPCRIS: British Official publications 1688-1800: www.bopcris.ac.uk A full set of 18th, 19th and 20th Century British Official Publications consists of approximately 250,000 Parliamentary Papers and an unknown number of non-parliamentary publications.

Subject specific skills

-Critically evaluate sources for the study of women and gender
-Understand historical and theoretical interpretations of the study of women and gender

Transferable skills

-Develop critical and analytical study, writing and communication skills
-Present research in an imaginative and concise manner
-Develop written and oral communication skills
-Undertake bibliographic research
-Develop competency in using electronic resources for research and writing