WOMEN'S AND GENDER HISTORY

The discipline belongs to the core educational activities of the Master’s Degree Programme in History from the Middle Ages to Present. Those activities prepare students to specialize in history in and outside Europe, acquiring a specific understanding of the fundamental epistemologies of a historian’s practice and of the methodology of investigation of primary and secondary sources.

The attendance and the active participation at the course and the individual study will allow the students: to acquire the knowledge and the understanding of the major categories, problems, historiographical trends related to women's and gender history; to acquire a deeper knowledge on the topic by reading and discussing historical essays; to approach this subject through the first-hand analysis and evaluation of primary sources; to give oral presentations on case-studies.

Knowledge of the basic events of European History in the Early Modern and Modern Age, even if the student hasn’t passed yet the specific examinations.

What is intended by "women's history" and by "gender history"? When and in which contexts "women's history" and "gender history" first emerged? Which were in the last decades the main fields of women's- and gender history? How can we use gender as "a useful category of historical analysis" (Scott 1986)?
After the introductory lessons, the course will approach some specific topics, in relation with the major historical transformations of Early Modern Europe (religious history, cultural history, the evolution of States etc.) and in particular: the rights of women in early modern Europe, the access to work, to education and to artistic creation and the history of the family. The course will be conducted in English and Italian and also, if the students' knowledge allows, in French. Special attention will be paid to the presentation of documents from Venetian archives and the history of women in Venice in the early modern age.

The texts below (in descending chronological order of edition) represent reading suggestions, but the bibliography - in Italian, English and French - will be constantly enriched during the lessons.

Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Matrimoni rinascimentali. Donne e vita famigliare a Firenze (secc. XIV-XV), Roma, Viella, 2022
Joanne M. Ferraro (ed.), A Cultural History of Marriage in the Renaissance and Early Modern Age, London, Bloomsbury, 2020
Teresa Bertilotti (ed.), Women’s History at the Cutting Edge. An Italian Perspective, Roma, Viella, 2020
Enrica Asquer, Anna Bellavitis, Giulia Calvi, Isabelle Chabot, M. Cristina La Rocca, Manuela Martini (dir.), Vingt-cinq ans après. Les femmes au rendez-vous de l’histoire hier et aujourd’hui, Rome, Ecole Française de Rome, 2019
Anna Bellavitis, Beatrice Zucca Micheletto (eds.) Gender, Law and Economic Well-Being in Europe from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century. North versus South?, London and New York, Routledge, 2019
Edith Saurer, Amore e lavoro. Relazioni tra donne e uomini in età contemporanea (secoli XIX-XX), Roma, Viella, 2018
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
Deborah Simonton (ed.), The Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience, Abigdon-New York, Routledge, 2017
Simona Feci e Laura Schettini (a cura di), La violenza contro le donne nella storia. Contesti, linguaggi, politiche del diritto (secoli XV-XXI), Rome, Viella, 2017
Nadia Maria Filippini, Generare, partorire, nascere. Una storia dall’antichità alla provetta, Roma, Viella, 2017
Merry E. Wiesner, Le donne nell’Europa moderna, 1500-1750. Torino, Einaudi, 2017
Anna Bellavitis, Il lavoro delle donne nelle città dell’Europa moderna, Rome, Viella, 2016 (English Edition: Women’s work and rights in early modern urban Europe, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
Joan W. Scott, Genere, Politica, Storia, a cura di Ida Fazio, Roma, Viella, 2013
Anna Bellavitis, Linda Guzzetti (a cura di), Donne, lavoro, economia a Venezia tra Medioevo ed età moderna, “Archivio Veneto” 3, 2012.
Jutta G. Sperling, Shona Kelly Wray (ed.), Across the Religious Divide : Women, Property and Law in the Wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800), New York-Londres, Routledge, 2010
Anna Bellavitis, Famille, genre, transmission à Venise au XVIe siècle, Rome, École Française de Rome, 2008
Giulia Calvi (a cura di), Innesti. Storia delle donne, storia di genere, storia sociale, Roma, Viella, 2004
Nadia M. Filippini, Tiziana Plebani, Anna Scattigno (a cura di), Corpi e Storia, Donne e uomini dal mondo antico all’età contemporanea, Roma, Viella, 2002
Gisela Bock, Le donne nella storia d'Europa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001.
Giulia Calvi, Isabelle Chabot (a cura di), Le ricchezze delle donne. Diritti patrimoniali e poteri familiari in Italia (XIII-XIX secc.), Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 1998
Marina D'Amelia, Storia della maternità, Bari, Laterza, 1997
Angela Groppi (a cura di), Il lavoro delle donne, Bari, Laterza, 1996

For attending students: oral examination at the end of the course. Active participation in the lessons is required: collective discussion of texts and documents.
For non-attending students: presentation of two books, from the list above: written text -minimum 5 pages- and oral presentation at the exam. It will also be possible to propose books not on the list.

Introductory lessons; seminar activities: weekly reading of historical essays; class discussions; student presentations.

English

Students who cannot attend the course are requested to communicate the chosen program to the teacher.

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