Women’s History and Oral History: developments and debates
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09612020601049652
ISSN1747-583X
Autores Tópico(s)Data Analysis and Archiving
ResumoAbstract Women's history and oral history grew up together. Each developed from a commitment to reveal and reverse, to challenge and to contest what were perceived to be dominant discourses framed by gender and class. In this article the relationship between these two endeavours is explored. Beginning with the 1960s the influence of feminist approaches to research and representation are given due consideration and acknowledgement. In reviewing changes over the last four decades the dilemma for women of being both subject and object in research is explored. The tension in this dilemma is discussed in relation to developments in relation to subjectivity in the interview, the process of doing oral history, the developments in public history and remembering in late life. The article concludes with an overview of new work in the field and concedes that, whatever issues remain unresolved, oral history continues to interest and attract researchers working in a wide range of disciplines with the promise of yet more theorised and gendered explorations of the past in years to come. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Alistair Thomson, Reader at the University of Sussex, for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article. Notes [1] Susan H. Armitage & Sherna Berger Gluck (2002) Reflections on Women's Oral History, an Exchange, in Susan H. Armitage with Patricia Heart & Karen Weatherman (Eds) Women's Oral History: the 'Frontiers' reader (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press), p. 83. [2] Selma Leydersdorff, Luisa Passerini & Paul Thompson (1996) Introduction, in Selma Leydersdorff, Luisa Passerini & Paul Thompson (Eds) Gender and Memory, Vol. IV, International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 1–16. [3] Joan Scott (1992) Women's History, in Peter Burke (Ed.) New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press), pp. 42–66. [4] Alistair Thomson, Michael Frisch & Paula Hamilton (1994) The Memory and History Debates: some international perspectives, Oral History, 22(2), pp. 33–43. [5] Mary Stuart (1994) You're a Big Girl Now: subjectivities, feminism and oral history, Oral History, 22(2), pp. 55–63. [6] Rob Perks & Alistair Thomson (Eds) (1998) The Oral History Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press). [7] Paul Thompson (2000) The Voice of the Past, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Chamberlayne et al.'s The Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science (2000) traces similar developments but with a focus on the shift towards an understanding of the reflection and agency of the individual. See their Introduction, an expanded version of which also appears in Tom Wengraf, Prue Chamberayne & Joanna Bornat (2002) A Biographical Turn in the Social Sciences? A British‐European View, Cultural Studies—Critical Methodologies, 2(2), pp. 245–269. Prue Chamberlayne, Joanna Bornat & Tom Wengraf (2000) Introduction: the biographical turn, in Prue Chamberlayne, Joanna Bornat & Tom Wengraf (Eds) The Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science (London: Routledge), pp. 1–30. [8] The twice‐yearly journal has consistently included a women's perspective in all its issues and specifically in relation to topics such as the Family (1975), Labour History (1983), City Space (1985), Popular Memory (1990), the Crafts (1990), Remembering (1991), Health and Welfare (1995), Political Lives (1996), Sport (1997), War and Peace (1997) and Memory and Place (2000). [9] Elizabeth Roberts, Working Class Women in the North West; Jill Liddington, Working Class Women in the North West: II; Catherine Hall, Married Women at Home in Birmingham in the 1920s and 1930s; Diana Gittins, Women's Work and Family Size between the Wars. Also S. Taylor, The Effect of Marriage on Job Possibilities for Women, and the Ideology of the Home: Nottingham 1890–1930, and Joanna Bornat, Home and Work: a new context for trade union history. [10] Paul Thompson (2002) Obituary: Theo Barker 1923–2001, Oral History, 30(1), p. 20. [11] Edward Thompson (1963) The Making of the English Working Class (London: Gollancz), p. 12. [12] Sidney Webb & Beatrice Webb (1920) History of Trade Unionism (London: Longman & Co.); J. L. Hammond & B. Hammond (1949) The Town Labourer (1760–1832) (London: Guild Books), G. D. H. Cole & R. Postgate (1946) The Common People: 1746–1946 (London: Methuen). [13] Joanna Bornat (1977) Women's History and Oral History: an outline bibliography, Oral History, 5(2), pp. 124–135. [14] Ibid. [15] Sheila Rowbotham (1973) Hidden from History: 300 years of women's oppression and the fight against it (London: Pluto). [16] Paul Thompson (1978) The Voice of the Past, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Joanna Bornat (1992) The Communities of Community Publishing, Oral History, 21(2), pp. 23–31; Raphael Samuel (1994) Theatres of Memory, Vol. 1, Past and Present in Contemporary Culture (London: Verso). [17] See, for example, Daisy Noakes (1975) The Town Beehive: a young girl's lot. Brighton 1910–1934 (Brighton: QueenSpark Books); Edith Hall (1977) Canary Girls and Stockpots (Luton: Workers Educational Association); Doris White (1980) D for Doris, V for Victory (Milton Keynes: People's Press); Writing by Asian Women (1984) Breaking the Silence (London: Centreprise Publishing Project); Olive Masterson (1986) A Circle of Life (Brighton: QueenSpark books); Jo Stanley & Bronwen Griffiths (1990) For Love and Shillings: Wandsworth women's working lives (London: London History Workshop Centre); Stephen Bourne & Esther Bruce (1991) Aunt Esther's Story (London: Ethnic Communities Oral History Project); Mabel Will (1994) Mabel's Story (Winchester: George Mann Publications); MAMA East African Women's Group (1995) Shells on a Woven Cord (Castleford: Yorkshire Art Circus); Jim Arnison (1996) Hilda's War (Salford: Jim Arnison); Anne Bott (Ed.) (1997) Alice from Tooting (Warwick: Plowright Press); Flo Hickson (1998) Flo: child migrant from Liverpool (Warwick: Plowright Press). [18] Linda Shopes (1984) Beyond Trivia and Nostalgia: collaborating in the construction of a local history, International Journal of Oral History, 5(3), pp. 151–158; Rob Perks (2001) The Century Speaks: a public history partnership, Oral History, 29(2), p. 107. [19] Joan Scott (1992) Women's History, in Peter Burke (Ed.) New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press), p. 42. [20] Jill Liddington & Jill Norris (1978) One Hand Tied Behind Us: the rise of the women's suffrage movement (London: Virago), p. 18. [21] Popular Memory Group (1998) Popular Memory: theory, politics, method, in R. Perks & A. Thomson (Eds) The Oral History Reader (London: Routledge), pp. 75–87. [22] Ronald J. Grele (1975) Envelopes of Sound (Chicago: Precedent Publishing); Luisa Passerini (1979) Work Ideology and Consensus under Italian Fascism, History Workshop, 8 (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press), pp. 82–108. [23] Paul Thompson (1995) Letter published in Oral History, 23(2), p. 28. [24] Popular Memory Group, 'Popular Memory: theory, politics, method', p. 82. [25] Leydersdorff et al., 'Introduction', p. 4. [26] See Graham Smith (1984) Manpower History: the Arbroath History Project, Oral History, 12(2), pp. 60–63; Siobhan Kirrane (1989) Employment Training: the icing on the cake, Oral History, 17(2), pp. 53–55. [27] Samuel, Theatres of Memory, p. 260. [28] Ibid., p. 268. [29] Ibid., p. 8. [30] Stuart, 'You're a Big Girl Now'. [31] Passerini, 'Work Ideology and Consensus under Italian Fascism'. [32] Ibid., p. 86. [33] Penny Summerfield (1998) Reconstructing Women's Wartime Lives: discourse and subjectivities in oral histories of the Second World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 9–10. [34] Personal Narratives Group (Eds) (1989) Interpreting Women's Lives: feminist theory and personal narratives (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press), p. 12. [35] Dorothy Smith (1987) The Everyday World as Problematic: a feminist sociology (Milton Keynes: Open University Press), p.142. [36] Caroline Ramazanoglu (1992) On Feminist Methodology: male reason versus female empowerment, Sociology, 26(2), pp. 207–212. [37] Scott, 'Women's History', p. 42. [38] The Editorial Collective (1989) Oral History, 17(2), p. 1. [39] Summerfield, Reconstructing Women's Wartime Lives, p. 10. [40] Mary Stuart (2002) Not Quite Sisters; women with learning difficulties living in convent homes (Kidderminster: BILD Publications). [41] Michael Frisch is the US author of the influential (1990) A Shared Authority: essays on the craft and meaning of oral and public history (Albany: State University of New York Press) in which he argues for a form of oral history‐making which involves partnership at all stages with interviewees, from the initial interview, through transcribing and editing to the finished product. [42] Editorial (1993), Oral History, 21(2), p. 2. [43] Sherna B. Gluck & Daphne Patai (1991) Women's Words: the feminist practice of oral history (London: Routledge). [44] Ibid., p. 4. [45] Katherine Borland (1991) 'It's Not What I Said': interpretive conflict in oral narrative research, in Gluck & Patai, Women's Words, p. 72. [46] Judith Stacey (1991) Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? in Gluck & Patai, Women's Words, p. 113. [47] Gluck & Patai, Women's Words, p. 144. [48] Ibid., p. 150. [49] Summerfield, Reconstructing Women's Wartime Lives, pp. 22–31. [50] Joan Sangster (1994) Telling our Stories: feminist debates and the use of oral history, Women's History Review, 3, p. 22. [51] Whether or not the term 'public history' came to be used increasingly to describe a range of practices that had earlier and developing histories and that had very different national contexts remains a moot point. The fact remains that from the 1990s, public history as a term developed common recognition. We are grateful to Alistair Thomson for this making this point. [52] Alistair Thomson, Michael Frisch & Paula Hamilton (1994) The Memory and History Debates: some international perspectives, Oral History, 22(2), pp. 39–42. [53] Popular Memory Group, 'Popular Memory: theory, politics, method', p. 84. [54] Alistair Thomson (1994) Anzac Memories: living with the legend (Oxford: Oxford University Press). [55] Summerfield Reconstructing Women's Wartime Lives, pp. 31–32. [56] Anna Green, (2004) Individual Remembering and 'Collective Memory': theoretical presuppositions and contemporary debates, Oral History, 32(2), p. 38. [57] Joanna Bornat (2001) Reminiscence and Oral History: parallel universes or shared endeavour? Ageing and Society, 21, pp. 219–223. [58] Joanna Bornat (1989) Oral History as a Social Movement: reminiscence and older people, Oral History, 17(2), pp. 16–20. [59] Miriam Bernard & Kathy Meade (Eds) (1993) Women Come of Age: perspectives on the lives of older women (London: Edward Arnold). [60] Gwendolyn Etter‐Lewis (1993) My Soul is My Own: oral narratives of African American women in the professions (London: Routledge); Elizabeth Roberts (1995) Women and Families: an oral history, 1940–1970 (Oxford: Blackwell); Gwendolyn Etter‐Lewis & M. Foster (Eds) (1996) Unrelated Kin, Race and Gender in Women's Personal Narratives (London: Routledge); Kennedy Lapovsky (1998) Telling Tales: oral history and the construction of pre‐Stonewall lesbian history, in Perks & Thomson (Eds) The Oral History Reader, pp. 344–357. [61] Paul Thompson, Catherine Itzin & Michelle Abendstern (1990) 'I Don't Feel Old': the experience of later life (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Thompson (2000) The Voice of the Past, pp. 109–112; Daniel Bertaux & Paul Thompson (Eds) (1993) Between Generations: family models, myths and memories, International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, Vol. II (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Leydersdorff et al., 'Introduction'. [62] Jane Campbell & Mike Oliver (1996) Disability Politics: understanding our past, changing our future (London: Routledge). [63] Joanna Bornat, Rob Perks, Paul Thompson & Jan Walmsley (2000) Oral History, Health and Welfare (London: Routledge). [64] See, for example, David W. Jones (1998) Distressing Interviews and Unhappy Interviewing, Oral History, 26(2), pp. 49–56; Wendy Rickard (1998) Oral History—'More dangerous than therapy?' Interviewees' Reflections on Recording Traumatic or Taboo Issues, Oral History, 26(2), pp. 34–48; Sheena Rolph (1998) Ethical Dilemmas: oral history work with people with learning difficulties, Oral History, 26(2), pp. 65–72. [65] Stuart, 'Not Quite Sisters'. [66] She has produced a prolific number of articles; among them are Mary Chamberlain (1997) Gender and the Narratives of Migration, History Workshop Journal, pp. 87–108; (1999) The Family as Model and Metaphor in Caribbean Migration to Britain, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 25(2), pp. 251–266; (1999) Brothers and Sisters, Uncles and Aunts: a lateral perspective on Caribbean families, in Elizabeth B. Silva & Carol Smart, The 'New' Family (London : Sage); (2000) 'Praise Songs' of the Family: lineage and kinship in the Caribbean diaspora, History Workshop Journal, 50, pp. 114–128. [67] Chamberlain, 'Gender and the Narratives of Migration', p. 106. [68] Anne Marie Fortier (2000) Migrant Belongings: memory, space, identity (London: Berg), p. 64. [69] Chamberlain, 'Gender and the Narratives of Migration', p. 106. [70] Louise Ryan (2002) 'I'm Going to England': women's narratives of leaving Ireland in the 1930s, Oral History, 30(1), p. 49. [71] Paul Thomson & Elaine Bauer (2002) Recapturing Distant Caribbean Childhoods and Communities: the shaping of the memories of Jamaican migrants in Britain and North America, Oral History, 30(2), pp. 49–59. [72] Jill Liddington (1984) The Life and Times of a Respectable Rebel: Selina Cooper 1864–1946 (London: Virago); (1989) The Long Road to Greenham—feminism and anti‐militarism in Britain since 1820 (London: Virago); (1994) Presenting the Past: Anne Cooper of Halifax (1791–1840) (Hebden Bridge: Pennine Press); (1998) Female Fortune, Land, Gender and Authority. The Anne Lister Diaries and Other Writings 1833–36 (London: Rivers Oram). [73] Ludmilla Jordanova (2000) History in Practice (London: Arnold), pp. 145–147. [74] Jill Liddington (2002) What is Public History? Publics and their Pasts: meanings and practices, Oral History, 30(1), pp. 89–90. [75] Ibid., pp. 90–91. [76] See, for example, Prue Chamberlain (2002) Biography and Social Exclusion in Europe: experiences and life journeys (Bristol: Polity Press). [77] Caitriona Clear (2003) Hardship, Help and Happiness in Oral History Narratives of Women's Lives in Ireland, 1921–61, Oral History, 31(2), pp. 33–42. [78] Sheena Rolph, Jan Walmsley & Dorothy Atkinson (2002) 'A Man's Job?': gender issues and the role of mental welfare officers, 1948–1970, Oral History, 30(1), pp. 28–41. [79] Sam Carroll (2004) 'I Was Arrested at Greenham in 1962': investigating the oral narratives of women in the anti‐nuclear committee of 100, Oral History, 32(1), pp. 35–48. [80] Marilyn Barber (2005) Hearing Women's Voices: female migration to Canada in the early twentieth century, Oral History, 33(1), pp. 68–76. [81] Susan H. Armitage (2002) Women's Oral History: the 'Frontiers' reader, p. 76. [82] Rena Feld (2003) From the Interviewer's Perspective: interviewing women conscientious objectors, Oral History, 31(1), pp. 29–37. [83] Susan Burton, (2003) Issues in Cross‐cultural Interviewing: Japanese women in England, Oral History, 31(1), pp. 38–46. [84] Jieyu Liu (2006) Researching Chinese Women's Lives: 'insider' research and life history interviewing, Oral History, 34(1), pp. 43–52. [85] Liz Stanley (Ed.) (1990) Feminist Praxis, Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology (London: Routledge). [86] Sangster, 'Telling our Stories', p. 6. [87] Barber, Female Emigration to Canada, p. 75. [88] Anna Green (2004) Individual Remembering and 'Collective Memory': theoretical presuppositions and contemporary debates, Oral History, pp. 35–44. [89] Ibid., p. 39. [90] Ibid., pp. 42–43. [91] Chamberlayne et al., 'Introduction: the biographical turn', pp. 1–30. [92] Alistair Thomson (1998) Undergraduate Life History Research Projects: approaches, issues, outcomes (Brighton: Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex), pp. 31, 58. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJoanna BornatJoanna Bornat is Professor of Oral History in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, joint editor of the journal Oral History and writes and researches in the areas of oral history and ageing. She has edited a number of collections of oral history writing. A current research interest is the approach to the reanalysis of archived data.Hanna DiamondHanna Diamond is Senior Lecturer in French History and European Studies at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages at the University of Bath. She has made extensive use of oral history in both her books, Women and the Second World War in France 1939–48; choices and constraints (Longman, 1999) and Fleeing Hitler: France 1940 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
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