Overview

Drawing on a wide range of source materials from across Scotland, this sourcebook provides new insights into women's attitudes to the society in which they lived, and how they negotiated their identities within private and public life. Organised in thematic chapters, it moves from the private and intimate experiences of sexuality, health and sickness to Scotswomen's migrations across the British empire, illustrating many facets of women's lives - domesticity and waged work, defiance of law and convention, religious faith and respectability, political action and public influence. A range of fascinating and rich source material sheds new light on the lives of women across Scotland throughout the long nineteenth century, demonstrating the pervasiveness of discourses of appropriate feminine behaviour, but also women's subversion of this. It raises challenging questions for researchers about the identification of women's voices, where these have been muted by class, religion, or ethnicity, while at the same time providing a methodology for uncovering these. Thought-provoking and innovative, this text will prove an invaluable resource for students, teachers and researchers. It will enable them to discover new ways of understanding the Scottish past and serve as a guide to redressing the gender imbalance of historical narratives.

Full Product Details

9781399563680

Table of Contents

Reviews

This is a superb collection, destined to be widely used. Especially distinctive and valuable is the presentation of women’s experiences almost entirely in their own words for the study of the nation’s past * Elizabeth Ewan, University of Guelph * The range and rich variety of texts authored by women should prove a revelation to many readers, and challenge common stereotypes of women's place in Victorian society. -- Karly Kehoe * History Scotland: Vol.13 No.6 *

Author Information

Dr Esther Breitenbach is Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh. Previously Research Fellow in Social Policy, University of Edinburgh, she has held research and teaching posts in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology since 2007. Dr Linda Fleming is currently Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include the social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century Scotland. S. Karly Kehoe is Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Communities at Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia. Prior to coming to Saint Mary’s, she lived and worked in Scotland. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the Global Young Academy and the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, and an alumna of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland. Her work concentrates on Scottish and Irish Catholic settlement and colonisation in the north Atlantic, but she is also interested in sustainable development and rural change in Nova Scotia and the Scottish Highlands. Dr Lesley Orr is a feminist historian and activist. She has held teaching and research posts at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and is currently an Honorary Fellow at the School of Classics, History and Archaeology, University and Edinburgh. She has served as a member of the steering committee of Women’s History Scotland.

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