Exploring the Lives of Women, 1558-1837
The Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837 was formed thirty years ago, and this collection of thirteen essays celebrates the anniversary. The Group brings together historians interested in women and gender studies principally in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It is difficult to review such a disparate set of essays. They are mostly academic monographs written for fellow academics. For me the two most interesting and accessible articles were the one on female physical labour and sport in the ‘long 18th century’, before the Victorians ‘civilised’ society by imposing a stricter role segregation between the sexes, and the final essay on how the Victorians used Queen Victoria as a female role model, although this surely is outside the group’s time frame.
