Can We still Use ‘Separate Spheres’? British History 25 Years After Family Fortunes”

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12731897
AutoresSusie L Steinbach (autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen10
Número11
Páginas826-837
Fecha de publicación2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1478-0542 • E-ISSN: 1478-0542
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/hic3.12010
OpenAlexW2151607786
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas49

Historians of Britain often call the period between 1780 and 1850 the age of ‘separate spheres’ or ‘domestic ideology’ for men and women, and when they do, they are likely to reference Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall’s Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Working Class, 1780–1850 (1987). This essay takes the 25th anniversary of Family Fortunes as an occasion on which to assess the book and its treatment of the ideology of separate spheres. Careful reading reveals that while Family Fortunes is often remembered as championing an historical focus on the emergence of separate spheres ideology, it is in fact an account of the formation of the English middle class that interprets separate spheres ideology in complex and nuanced ways. The principal contribution of Family Fortunes is its demonstration that notions of gender were central to class as it was constructed and as it was experienced and lived out. Gender was not merely an aspect of social life; rather, gender and class were mutually constitutive

Aesthetics · Art · Class (philosophy · Close reading · Epistemology · Ideology · Literature · Middle class · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Principal (computer security · Reading (process · Separate spheres · Sociology · Working class · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology