Centre for Gender History

Interlace panel from the Govan sarcophagus, carved for the bones of St Constantine, c. 900 AD

Hufton Postgraduate Reading Group

Established in 2007, the Glasgow University Gendering History reading group, also known as the Hufton Seminar Group, is organised by postgraduate students on a six-weekly basis and provides the opportunity to discuss and debate gender and other theories and histories in an informal setting.  All postgraduates, academics, and other university staff are welcome to attend.  Postgraduate students and early career historians from other Scottish universities are also welcome. 

The Group welcomes all suggestions regarding topics for discussion and these meetings also provide a forum for discussing students' own work and experience of gender history.  The research of those attending the group covers a diverse range of historical periods and themes and students are therefore able to offer one another different insights into the practice of gender history.

The key contact is Martha Kirby 


The Hufton Gendering History Reading Group - 2012/13

October 2012

For the first meeting of the new academic year we took the important, if at times controversial, theme of patriarchy and its value as a theoretical framework in our own research.  Katie Barclay’s recent work on patriarchy and marital relations in early modern Scotland acted as the spring-board for our discussion, in particular her prize-winning book:  Love, Intimacy and Power: Marriage and Patriarchy in Scotland, 1650-1850 (2011).

Several points emerged from our discussion of Katie’s research, including her important argument that patriarchal marital relations do not preclude companionate or affectionate marriage and her emphasis on the negotiations between couples about their roles in marriage that acted both to give individual women agency within a patriarchal society, and ultimately to ensure the continuation of patriarchal relations through its continual evolution (drawing on Kandiyoti’s ‘patriarchal bargain’ and Bennet’s ‘patriarchal equilibrium’).  The definition of patriarchy was another point of discussion, focusing on patriarchy as a ‘system’.  The point was also raised that the term ‘patriarchy’ is sometimes used only as a description of gender inequality, rather than as a theoretical framework in which to situate analysis.

From here our discussion turned to the value of patriarchy in our own research, ranging from its usefulness in understanding doctor-patient relationships, through studies of nineteenth century divorce and childhood to modern consumerism and the labour movement.  There was a general consensus that it provided a compelling theoretical framework, and that a patriarchal system could be identified in many of the areas and periods of research represented around the table. However, many of us found it much harder to move beyond that to analyse its operation on an everyday basis and to understand how individuals negotiated the patriarchal system as Barclay has so impressively done.  In part, it was felt that this was an issue of available source material.
We were left with a question to consider: if we so readily accept the concept of patriarchy as system of social relations that has survived much historical change, how can we ever hope to see its end?

Wednesday 14 November 2012

We shall be discussing the legacy of Eric Hobsbawm in light of his recent death, and consider how his contributions to social history have influenced our own research.
Since his death he has been described as ‘the most widely read, influential and respected British intellectual and historian from the Marxist tradition’ and credited with ‘bringing history out of the ivory tower and into people’s lives’. However Hobsbawm was not always so revered by feminist historians, many of whom criticised him during the 1970s after he characterised women as: ‘belonging to the proletariat not as a worker, but as the wife, mother and housekeeper of workers'.
In this seminar, we shall consider the extent to which this view of women in social history still prevails today, the value of a Marxist approach to history and whether it can ever be successfully reconciled with an approach that considers gender. Please feel free to come along and discuss any examples relevant to this debate from your own research.

Wednesday 12 December 2012 – Christmas Special: Consumerism and Gender

Hayley Cross will open our discussion with an informal introduction to some of her oral history work. Hayley has interviewed a number of Scottish men and women, born between 1920 and 1965. She will discuss how she and her participants have explored Christmas and the role played by gender in the construction of testimony. Themes covered will include; credit and debt, the pressure of advertising and black-market goods. This should stimulate discussion on the wider theme of 'consumption' and will provide the group with an opportunity to reflect on the possible role of 'gendered consumption' in their own work.

Here are some links to three articles that might be of interest:

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Laura Paterson shall be discussing her research and presenting statistical data on women's paid employment between 1931 and 1971, providing a national and regional analysis. She has suggested the following articles as appropriate reading for people planning to attend:

  • Hakim, C., ‘Five Feminist Myths about Women’s Employment’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Sept., 1995), pp. 429-455.
  • Pahl, J. et al, ‘Feminist Fallacies: A Reply to Hakim on Women’s Employment’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 167-174

at 3pm in the meeting room in Lilybank House.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

The next meeting of the Hufton Postgraduate Reading group shall take place at 12 noon on Tuesday 19th February in the Meeting Room of Lilybank House. We shall be having a general discussion about periodisation and gender history. Those planning on attending are suggested to read the following as an introduction to the topic, before having a general discussion that will allow people to reflect upon the significance of periodisation in their own research.
Shepard, A. and Walker, G. (2008) ‘Gender, change and periodisation’ in  Gender and History, 20 (3).

Tuesday 19 March 2013

The following meeting shall take place at 12 noon on Tuesday 19th March in the Meeting Room of Lilybank House. Klara Arnberg, visiting researcher from Stockholm University, shall be giving a paper entitled: ‘Illegally Blonde: The pornographic construction of the “Swedish sin” in Private magazine 1965-1971’.