Confronting Continuity

In: Journal of women's history, Band 9, Heft 3, S. 73-94

Abstract

This exploratory essay shows how attention to long-term continuities in the status of women can create new interpretive possibilities for women's history. These continuities suggest a patriarchal equilibrium that has worked to maintain the status of European women in times of political, social, and economic change. This essay suggests a critical distinction between change in women's experiences and transformation in women's status, and it illustrates how historians of women have often confused one for the other. Arguing that narratives of transformation are unduly dominant in women's history, this essay then analyzes four factors that have promoted this dominance. The essay uses European history to frame its discussion but suggests that its conclusions might be applicable beyond Europe. The essay closes with an example, taken from the history of women in the English brewing industry, of how the concept of patriarchal equilibrium opens new and productive questions.