WOMEN'S AND GENDER HISTORY

This course is one of the main activities of the Master's degree course in History from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, which prepares students to specialize in European and extra-European history through a full mastery of the epistemological foundations of historiographic practice and the methods of investigation of the different types of sources, including original ones.

Attendance and active participation in the educational activity offered by the course and individual study will allow students to: 1) to acquire knowledge of the categories and of the main historiographic tendencies of the history of women and of gender and of its vocation to question general historiographic paradigms and historical periodizations; 2) to deepen the themes of the economic rights of women, of the access to education and to the acquisition of working competences and more generally the theme of female work in a wide European perspective, with special attention to the differences between Northern Europe and Mediterranean Europe in the early modern age ; 3) deal with the subject of the course through direct analysis of historical sources; 4) present orally and discuss a case study; 5) prepare a written text in the form of an essay, critically comparing it with the bibliography and analyzing a source.

Knowledge of general European history frameworks of the early modern age (even without necessarily having passed the exams of these courses).

The course aims to present the birth and development, in different geographical areas, European and non-European, of the history of women and gender, highlighting the specific characteristics, also related to different historiographical and political contexts. Subsequently, the focus will be on the early modern age in particular, focusing on the following topics: 1) the economic rights of men and women, in relation to different family models and specific legal traditions 2) education, the way in which work skills are learned in relation to gender 3) the employment opportunities offered to women in cities, with particular emphasis on the different economic developments in European regions.
The course will alternate between more general lessons based on the most recent historiographic production and seminar-type lessons dedicated to the discussion of historical documents in the original language. Particular attention will be paid to the documentation on women and the history of the family available in the Venetian archives.

Handbooks
Olwen Hufton, The prospect before her : a history of women in western Europe, London, Harper Collins, 1995
Merry E. Wiesner, Women and gender in early modern Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Presse, 2008
Joan W. Scott, Feminism and history, Oxford, oxford University Presse, 1996

Monographs
Natalie Zemon Davis, Women in the margins: three seventeenth century lives, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1995
Jutta Gisela Sperling and Shona Kelly Wray (eds.), Across the religious divide : women, property, and law in the wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800), New York-London, Routledge, 2010
Raffaella Sarti, Anna Bellavitis, Manuela Martini (eds.), What is work? : gender at the crossroads of home, family, and business from the early modern era to the present, Oxford-New York, Berghahn Books, 2018

For students attending: written report and oral interview. Active participation in the course will be evaluated.
For students not attending: ORAL examination on two monographs (see list in 'Testi di riferimento') and a handbook of their choice. Or: one handbook and six articles from those that are in the Moodle.

Introductory frontal lessons; seminar activities: weekly reading of an essay; discussion in the classroom; presentations by students (to be prepared individually or in small groups).

English

Students must be present at least 7 lessons out of 10.
Students who do not attend are required to notify the teacher of the program chosen.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development