Looking Back: 'Post-Feminist' Histories, 'Post-Feminist' Stories (360G-Wellcome-099411_Z_12_Z)

£2,050

The history of medicine, second-wave feminism, and women's history were tightly interwoven from the 1960s onwards, and much contemporary scholarship on women's health is shaped by these roots. In recent decades, however, a shift away from women's history to gender history has taken place, as has the emergence of queer theory and masculinity studies. In addition, the term 'post-feminism' has gained currency in the US and UK to diagnose a culture in which feminism, understood as having achieved its aim of equality between the sexes, is seen as no longer relevant. Influential commentators (e.g. Angela McRobbie, The Aftermath of Feminism, 2008, Sage) suggest that to historicise feminism is by definition an act of 'turning one's back' on it. Young women, the argument goes, are required to look back at feminism as something unnecessary, old, and worn - with the 'dismantling of feminist politics' inextricably linked to the contemporaneous 'dismantling of feminism within the academy.' And yet little sustained attention has been paid to the place of feminism within historical analysis itself, in this contested and much altered landscape. What is it to look historically at the feminisms of the postwar period, and their relationship not only to medicine and healthcare themselves, but also to scholarship about these? The objective of this conference is therefore to explore where this diagnosis of 'post-feminism' leaves the writing of history and history of medicine. Historical scholarship on the postwar period must include scrutiny of the feminisms that altered the medical, social and cultural landscape of the last sixty years. And yet if historians of this period include second-wave feminism as a category of historical analysis in itself - as an agent of historical change - then what relationship does this historical activity have to a 'post-feminist' stance that has been diagnosed as a symptom of a contemporary rejection of feminism? How should one look back, historically and critically, at the feminisms of the postwar period? What are their legacies for the methodology, politics, and narratives appropriate to contemporary scholarship in this area?

Where is this data from?

This data was originally published by The Wellcome Trust. If you see something about your organisation or the funding it has received on this page that doesn't look right you can submit a grantee amendment request. You can hover over codes from standard codelists to see the user-friendly name provided by 360Giving.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded 2050
Applicant Surname Angel
Approval Committee ERG11 Society and Ethics
Award Date 2012-06-25T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2011/12
Grant Programme: Title Small grant in H&SS
Internal ID 099411/Z/12/Z
Lead Applicant Dr Katherine Angel
Partnership Value 2050
Planned Dates: End Date 2012-10-19T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2012-09-20T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region West Midlands