Women in European History illustrates the social, cultural, legal and, political conditions that European women have faced from the Middle Ages to the present day. It also explores women's ideas and ideals, their perceptions of the relations between the sexes and their struggle for civil, political, and social rights. The book covers the long-standing European debate on gender relations and the roles of the sexes in society, which ultimately also posed the question of what is humanity. The study spans, among other topics, changes in marriage over centuries, women's role in the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, gender relations in the European welfare states, the European dictatorships and Nazi racism and the women's movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book concludes with an account of the emergence of historiography on women over the past two centuries.
Author(s): Gisela Bock
Edition: 1
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 304
City: Oxford & Malden
Tags: feminism, history of women, women's emancipation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Preface ix
1 Querelle des femmes: A European Gender Dispute 1
The Dignity of Man and the Dignity of Woman 2
Misogamy and Misogyny; Philogamy and Philogyny 14
The Power of Fathers, the Power of Men, the Power of Women 27
2 The French Revolution: The Dispute is Resumed 32
Hopes 33
Rights of Man and Rights of Woman 41
Amazons and Counter-revolutionaries 55
Napoleon and the Revolution in Europe 62
Nocturnal Intrigues 78
3 Challenging Boundaries: A Third Gender Dispute 82
Changing Debates and Language 84
No Angels in the House: Ideals and Realities 93
Old and New Labour 99
Pre-Pioneers and Pioneers of the Women’s Movement 108
A Social Movement 116
4 From the Social to the Political 127
National and Transnational Movements 128
Equal because Different: The Political Discourse of Suffragism 137
First-comers and Late-comers: European Paths to Women’s Suffrage 145
Citizenship and Mother’s Rights 156
Social Policies for and against Women 168
5 Between Extremes 174
Female Citizens and the New Woman 175
Maternity and Paternity in the Welfare State 181
Paths Leading to Dictatorship: The Political and the Private 189
National Socialism and Race Policy 206
War and Genocide in Europe 218
6 Civil, Political and Social Rights: A New Gender Debate 233
Liberty and Equality 235
The Longest Revolution 245
History, Mind and Gender 256
Notes 265
Bibliography 280
Index 291
