We are pleased to announce a new half-unit course at Masters’ level – Women in Economic History – which fills a gap in our current offerings.
The course, led by Dr Anne Ruderman, will explore the role of women in economic history, as economic actors, labour market participants and early founders of the discipline. As such, it will take a broad look at the economic activity of women, as well as the structures and institutions that have governed socioeconomic aspects of women's lives, from employment to marriage to savings and retirement. This course will consider the economic history of women from the Renaissance to the recent past, looking at differences and similarities between Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. It will look at themes such as women and work, invisible labour, women as productive and reproductive entities under slavery, female slave owners, medicine and women, the gendering of professions, and property rights. It will examine, for example, the dowry bond market in Renaissance Florence, female land-ownership in pre-colonial Gambia and the so-called "mental load" that professional women face in household management in the twenty-first century United States.