Methods, interventions and reflections

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3 Methods, interventions and reflections

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5 Methods, interventions and reflections Report from the X Nordic women s and gender history conference, Bergen, Norway, August 9 12, 2012 eds. ulla manns & fia sundevall makadam förlag

6 Makadam förlag Göteborg Stockholm Report Series of the Swedish Association for Women s and Gender Historians, no. 1 Sveriges kvinno- och genushistorikers skriftserie, nr 1 (tillgänglig på/available at Series editors/huvudredaktörer: Ulla Manns & Fia Sundevall Professor Ulla Manns: Dept. of Gender Studies, School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden ulla.manns@sh.se PhD Fia Sundevall: Dept. of Economic History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden & Centre of Gender Research, University of Oslo, 0315 Oslo, Norway fia.sundevall@ekohist.su.se Kopiering eller annat mångfaldigande kräver förlagets särskilda tillstånd. författarna och Makadam förlag 2014 Tryck USAB, Stockholm 2014 isbn

7 contents Ulla Manns & Fia Sundevall the importance of conference reports: preface to the x nordic women s and gender history conference report 9 conference program 12 Keynotes Ida Blom gender history then, now and in the future 15 Inger Nordal the biological turn a challenge for gender history 24 Birgitte Possing representing gendered individualities: reflections on the biographical turn 33 Panel Anders Ahlbäck only masculinities to offer? 46 methodological feminism and the gender history of men and masculinities Ulla Manns methodological feminism and the history of feminism 51

8 Session papers Anders Ahlbäck between independence and belonging: on the paradoxes of modern military masculinity 57 Eve Annuk feminist discourse at the end of the 19th century in estonia 65 Karin Carlsson hemvårdarinnor, pigor och hembiträden 74 att välja forskningsfokus igår och idag Christina Florin & Kirsti Niskanen minne, tystnader och makt i akademiska livsberättelser 83 Jakob Winther Forsbäck the chair of women s history at the university of gothenburg the paradoxes of feminist historiography, gender theory, and gender equality work at swedish universities Anne Hedén svensk finlandsaktivism, militarism och moderniserings strävanden i två svenska stridsberättelser från finland Agneta Järnankar ett nytt skolämne och en ny profession formeras 111 Ulla Manns feminismens pantheon: kollektivt minne, identitet och föreställd gemenskap 122

9 Sari Nauman gender, power and the oath 132 the early modern state and the oaths of allegiance Jytte Nielsen kvindesag og kvindepolitik 139 elna munchs og landsforbundets rolle og eftermæle i den danske kvindebevægelse Johanna Overud talking to mrs. housewife 149 the 1960s debates on the integration of married women into the swedish labour market Birgitte Possing in search of the keys to a biogra phi cal analysis of bodil koch ( ) 157 reflections on the making of a portrait of a controversial danish minister Fia Sundevall där pojkar blev män? 164 maskulinitet och mognad i minnesberättelser om svensk värnpliktsutbildning Liv Helene Willumsen the witch in the north reality and fiction 173 appendix 183 A: the viii nordic women s and gender history conference: gender and knowledge gendered knowledge turku, finland, august B: the ix women s and gender history conference: gender, space and borders, reykjavik, august

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11 the importance of conference reports: preface to the x nordic women s and gender history conference report In a 2009 commentary on gender history, seen through the lens of the Nordic women s gender and history conferences, professor Inger Elisabeth Haavet highlighted the importance of conference reports: Reading through the reports and programmes of the nine Nordic Women s and Gender History Conferences is like opening a treasure chest. Women, men, and gender historians with different backgrounds and academic levels present their research projects that are at varying stages. The groups and panels have been assembled to discuss where we are and where we are going ; international stars on the gender researcher sky have held keynote speeches and provided proposals for a way forward. This treasure chest of titles and contributions allow for a tour of the developments in national and Nordic gender history research. It demonstrates how the conferences have served as a unifying forum to meet, discuss, network and create new research projects. Not least, it shows the importance of the Nordic conferences for the development of a theoretical platform for gender research in the discipline of history Inger Elisabeth Haavet (2009): Nyskapning og fellesskap: kjønnshistoriens historie sett gjennom de nordiske kvinnehistorikermøtene, Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, no The quote in original: Å gå gjennom rapportene og programmene fra de ni nordiske kvinnehistorikermøtene er som å åpne en skattkiste. Her har kvinne-/ manns-/kjønnshistorikere med ulike bakgrunner og på ulike nivåer presentert sine prosjekter i varierende stadier. Her har grupper og paneler vært samlet for å diskutere hvor vi står og hvor vi går, her har internasjonale stjerner på kjønns-forskerhimme- 9

12 the importance of conference reports The Nordic Women s and Gender History Conferences have contributed to the development of the Gender history field of research and have made extended collaborations across borders possible, to the extent that it is now a field of research in itself. As such, it shows the strength and importance of academic and feminist mobilization. 2 Yet, there is still much to be investigated more thoroughly, as Monica Edgren among others has pointed out. 3 Irrespectively of what future analysis will conclude, one thing is sure: the documentation of these Nordic gatherings is important and the publications provide an invaluable asset as primary source material. The Nordic women and gender history research is in continuous development. Among the urgent questions we still need and want to know more about are: the concept of the Nordic ; the travelling of ideas and theories; the translation and implication of analytical categories (such as gender, sexuality and intersectionality); ideas and ideals about a feminist we ; the relation to and interaction with and within national and transnational frameworks, etcetera. To once again pick up the tradition of publishing reports from these conferences is therefore of uttermost importance. The X Nordic Women s and Gender History Conference was held August 9 12, 2012 in Bergen, Norway. The organisers were Professor Inger Elisabeth Haavet and PhD candidate Dunja Blazevic at the History Unit of the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen. The participants came from all of the Nordic countries as well as the Baltic region, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Attached to this publication are the conference programmes of the two preceding Nordic Women s and Gender History Conferences: the one held in 2005 in Turku, Finland and the one held in 2008 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Those two conferences are the only ones that did not publish reports. len holdt keynote speeches og gitt forslag til veien videre. Denne skattkisten av titler og innlegg gir anledning til en vandring gjennom utviklingen av den nasjonale og nordiske kjønnshistorieforskningen. Den viser hvordan møtene har fungert som et samlende forum for å møtes, diskutere, bygge nettverk og lage nye forskningsprosjekter. Ikke minst viser den hvor viktige de nordiske møtene har vært i utviklingen av en teoretisk plattform for kjønnsforskningen i historiefaget. 2. Haavet (2009). Dunja Blazevic, forthcoming PhD-thesis at the Dept. of History, University of Bergen. 3. Monika Edgren (2010): Genushistoria och den tvärvetenskapliga genusforskningen, Scandia, 76: 1. 10

13 preface to the x nordic women s and gender history conference report The Nordic gender history gatherings are vivid assemblies across borders. Scandinavian languages together with English have constituted official conference languages. This mix of languages has by some been understood as an advantage and yet another vibrant dimension of the conferences, but by others as a cause of communication problems. Over the years English has become more and more common, not only in the key notes and plenary sessions but also in the workshops. Because of this, we the editors decided to use English in the title and preface of this report. In the attached conference programs from the two conferences prior to the one in Bergen we have kept the format of original publication: from Bergen and Reykjavik a mix of languages, and from Turku (where conference information and program was published in Finnish, Swedish and English) we picked the English version. acknowledgments The conference report was originally to be published by the conference organisers but was completed by two of the Swedish participants and published in the report series of the Swedish Association for Gender Historians: SKOGH (Sveriges kvinno- och genushistoriker). The authors have been responsible for proof readings of their own texts and we would like to thank all of them for their careful work and patience. The printing of the report was made possible by generous donations from SKOGH, the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research (Nationella sekretariatet för genusforskning), Letterstedtska föreningen, and the Department of Gender Studies at Södertörn University. Thank you! Finally, we would like to thank the History Unit at the University of Bergen, and in particular Inger Elisabeth Haavet and Dunja Blazevic for organising the X Nordic Women s and Gender History Conference. We express our sincerest hopes that reports from future Nordic Women s and Gender History Conferences will continue to be published. Stockholm, april 26, 2014 eds. Ulla Manns and Fia Sundevall 11

14 Program Det X. Nordiske kvinnehistorikermøtet (The X Nordic women s and gender history conference), Bergen 2012 Torsdag / Thursday Sted / venue: Jussbygget, Sydneshaugen Ankomst, registrering, lunsj / arrival, registration, lunch Åpningssesjon / opening session Plenum I: The biological turn a challenge for gender history? Keynote: Inger Nordal, biologisk institutt,uio: Født sånn eller blitt sånn? Tanker om Eia-debatten noen år etter. / Born that way or became that way? Kommentar / commentator: Kari Jegerstedt, SKOK, UiB Parallellsesjoner tema I / parallell sessions, theme 1 (1 3) 1: Den kjønnede kroppen i forandring (Andersson, Kalman, Tolvhed, Levin) 2: Men, masculinities, and the military. (Sundevall, Ahlbäck, Heden, Sjøberg) 3: Kjønn og profesjon (Johansen, Vainio-Korhonen, Hakosalo, Overud, Järnankar) Kaffe og frukt / coffee and fruit Paneldebatt: Kjønnshistoriens utfordringer / Panel: Gender history s challenges Kirsti Niskanen m.fl. med utgangspunkt i Scandia, mai Tapasmiddag og sosialt samvær / tapas dinner and social gatherings Fredag / Friday Sted / venue: Radisson Blu Royal hotell, Bryggen Plenum II: Historiography and comparative gender history Keynote: Birgitte Possing: The Biographical Turn a Challenge for Gender 12

15 conference PRogram History: Representing Men, Women and Individualities in Historical Biographies. Panel: Metodologisk feminisme? / Methodological feminism? (Gro Hagemann, Berit Gullikstad, Eirin Larsen, Anders Ahlbäck, Ulla Manns) Lunsj Parallelle sesjoner tema II / parallel sessions, theme II (4 6) 4. The Methodologies of Gendered Historical Biographies (Halldorsdottirar, Lagerlöf-Nilsson, Jonassen, Leskälä-Kärkki, Harmainen, Vehkalahti, Anderson, Possing, Nordal, Haavet. Discussants: Carlsson-Wetterberg, Possing, Kinnunen Sesjonen fortsetter lørdag 15 17) 5. Fag og politikk: Kvinne- og kjønnshistoriens historie / Science and politics: The history of women and gender history (Blazevic, Forsbäck, Lindtner) 5b.: Minneskultur och kollektiv identitet / Cultural memories and collective identities (Manns, Florin, Niskanen, Thorgrimsdottir) 6. Hjemmets historiografi / The historiography of the home (Carlsson, Holgerson, Sogner, Vammen) Kaffe / coffee Parallelle sesjoner tema II / parallel sessions, theme II (7 10) 7. Interdisciplinary comparisons (Annuk, Kirss, Hinrikus, Willumsen, Leppänen) 8. Stemmerettens historiografi og jubileum/the historiography and anniversary of the vote (Larsen, Rönnbäck, Danielsen, Larsen, Linn) 9. Mistress and servants gender lojality in work relations (Jansson, Sandvik, Vainio-Korhonen, Østhus) 10. Gender, Religion and multiculturalism (Jusufbegovic, Malitska, Stavseth, van Es) Kveld / Evening Nasjonale møter/national meetings. Middag/dinner Lørdag / Saturday Sted / venue: Radisson Blu Royal hotell, Bryggen Plenum III: Gender, religion and multicultural society Keynote: Beth Baron, professor, City College, Univ. of New York: Nothing less than a Miracle : The Swedish Missionaries and Muslims of Port Said. Session: From Mission to Development (Henningsen, Okkenhaug, Skeie, Småberg, Jalagin) 13

16 Conference program Lunsj / lunch Parallelle sesjoner tema III / parallel sessions, theme III (4, 11, 13) 4. The Methodologies of Gendered Historical Biographies (fortsettelse fra fredag) 11. Transnational feminism (Bengtsson, Blomberg, Gradskova, Waldemarson) 12. PRE-MODS Nettverkspresentasjon / Network presentation (Hellsing, Karlgren, Kuokkanen, Miettinen, Nauman, Schjerning) Nasjonale møter / National meetings Festmiddag / Conference dinner Søndag / Sunday Sted/venue: Radisson Blu Royal hotell, Bryggen Gender history: then, now and in the future? Ida Blom in dialogue with Leonore Davidoff and Karin Hausen Kaffe og utsjekk / coffee and checkout Hvor står vi, hvor skal vi? Evaluering og planlegging/where are we, where are we going? Evaluation and Planning Lunsj og avslutning/lunch and finale Post conference Byvandring eller besøk på Griegs Troldhaugen/Guided walks or visits to Grieg Troldhaugen 14

17 keynote Ida Blom, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway gender history then, now and in the future Let me start by stressing that this paper builds on my personal recollections of what happened then, how things are now and what I hope for the future. Others may see this in very different ways, and we may have interesting discussions on what was then, now and how the future may be. Let me also add that many other themes might be highlighted, but with 15 minutes at my disposal much has to be omitted. gender history THEN When is then? We might go all the way back to 1745 when the Norwegian/ Danish historian and playwright Ludvig Holberg wrote Adskillige Heltinders og navnkundige Damers sammenlignede Historie. The Comparative History of several Heroines and Renowned Ladies. But let me start in 1904, when the well-known feminist and founder of the first co-educational school in Norway, Ragna Ullmann Nielsen, published a small book entitled Norwegian Women in the Nineteenth Century. She criticized historians for neglecting women s contributions to national history. She wrote: Men have created history [ ] History is only the history of men. She dedicated her book to The Women in the Year 2000, hoping that in the future, women will also become part of history. 1 Her hope was fulfilled, but it took a long time. 1. Ragna Nielsen (1904): Nordiske kvinder i det 19de aarhundrede (Kristiania: Det norske Aktieforlag), Indledning (ikke sidetall). Ida Blom (2007): To the Women in 15

18 Ida blom The young historian Halvdan Koht found Nielsen s book excellent and amusing. But to him it was not gender, but class relations that explained women s absence in historical narratives. He maintained that as long as history concerned only kings and lawmakers, women were left out. Koht argued for a rural tradition of equality, manifested in the equal importance of women s and men s work in an agrarian society. And he proclaimed: with working-class people, peasants and burghers, women will also appear in history. 2 During the interwar period Koht was to become the most prominent of Norwegian historians. But during his long and extremely productive career Koht never highlighted women in history. Some interesting studies by women historians on women s history appeared during the interwar period, but they were not seen as part of academic research. 3 In 1970 another male professor of history, Edvard Bull, reverted to the thoughts of Halvdan Koht. Bull s main interest was in non-european history, but he also predicted that among other important themes studies of people without power [ ] and of the family would admit great groups of people into history, people who had until then been left out: children, old and women. 4 I had then already taught history at the Bergen University for nine years. I had never wondered why there were no women in the books we used. Neither did I wonder why that was also the case with my own doctoral thesis, that I defended in May But that fall I suddenly discovered that women had a history and that it had not been researched. I was of course not the only one who made that discovery. The multifaceted approach to women s history in Nielsen s, Koht s and Bull s approaches also characterized the start of women s history in Norway. In the early 1970 s inspiration came both from the second wave women s movement and from a change in historical research to a growing interest the Year Norwegian Historians of Women, c.1900 c.1960, Gender and History, vol. 19, no. 3, p Halvdan Koht (1905): Kvinder i norsk historie, Samtiden, p Blom (2007). 4. Edvard Bull (1970): Historisk vitenskap foran 1970-årene. Tale ved hundreårs jubileet for Den norske historiske forening, 9. januar 1970, Historisk Tidsskrift, vol

19 gender history then, now and in the future in the history of everyday life, family history, historical demography and the history of mentalities. 5 This early period was characterized by the wish and indeed the need to discover what women s history had been. A growing number of master students and some university teachers started researching new areas of the past. Some analyzed the organization of working class women and the relations between them and middle class women. Others wrote about sexuality and prostitution. The history of housework and women s work as midwives, nurses, teachers, etc. was analyzed. The fight for suffrage and for admission to higher education, the activities of women s voluntary organizations as well as women s attitudes to reduced fertility and much more was now researched. A wealth of new knowledge was published in anthologies, articles and books. 6 No wonder that Edvard Bull in 1981 found women s history to have become a growing field of research, in contact with sociologists and other social scientists. 7 At the Nordic History Conferences sessions on women s history helped building connections among Nordic historians. At the conference in 1977 plans were made for a three year project on the theme Women s work in family and society c c With the economic support of the Norwegian Research Council three Norwegian historians were engaged in this project. Danish and Swedish historians were also involved, and early results were presented at the following Nordic History Conference in Finland in This was also where the idea of Nordic Conferences of Women s History was planned. The first of these conferences was held in Oslo in 1983 and today we attend the 10 th of these very inspiring meetings. Soon research moved from the necessity of documenting women s his- 5. Ida Blom (1994): Det er forskjell på folk nå som før. Om kjønn og andre former for sosial differensiering (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget). 6. See e.g. Ida Blom and Gro Hagemann (eds.) (1980, 1st edition 1977): Kvinner selv Sju bidrag til norsk kvinnehistorie (H. Aschehoug forlag: Oslo). Anne-Marit Gotaas, Brita Gulli, Kari Melby and Aina Schiøtz (1980): Det kriminelle kjønn. Om barnefødsel i dølgsmål, abort og prostitusjon (Pax Forlag: Oslo). Ida Blom (1980): Barnebegrensning synd eller sund fornuft? (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget). 7. Bull 1970, reprinted in Edvard Bull (1981): Retten til en fortid. Socialhistoriske artikler (Oslo, Universitetsforlaget), p Ida Blom and Anna Tranberg (eds.) (1985): Nordisk lovoversikt. Viktige lover for kvinner ca (Nordisk Ministerråd: Copenhagen). 17

20 Ida blom tory to discussing theoretical approaches to the past. Well-known concepts such as worker or citizen were gendered in order to distinguish the masculine from the feminine. The concept of work was widened to include women s work in the home and the history of women s voluntary organizations was included in analysis of the political process. Like everywhere else the distinctions between biological sex and social gender (biologisk og kulturellt kjønn) was discussed. Inspired by Joan Scott gender was increasingly used as an analytical category. 9 Gender history by then sometimes included studies of the construction of political parties, of national conflicts, of the history of labour, of welfare history and the history of health, etc. etc. It was a fascinating time. But it should be admitted that gender continued mainly to mean women. The history of men as gendered individuals, the history of masculinity, was slow to start. What was the reaction to all this among other academic historians? Some colleagues found the new knowledge inspiring. Fruitful cooperation was soon established with welfare state history and with historical demography. Others showed little interest in and little knowledge of what was going on. An interesting debate with Ottar Dahl in Historisk Tidsskrift (the Norwegian Journal of History) in 1985 afforded an opportunity to inform and discuss what women s history meant. 10 Still, integrating gender history in national history seemed to be a difficult project! A new textbook on Norwegian national history published in 1991 almost completely neglected gender history and a fascinating analysis of the Norwegian/Swedish political union, published in 2005, only made scant allusion to women s political activism. 11 But when such omissions occurred they offered the opportunity 9. Joan Wallach Scott (1986): Gender. A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, American Historical Review, 91, 5 (December). Reprinted in Joan Wallach Scott (1988): Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press), p Ottar Dahl (1985): Kvinnehistorie. Kategorihistorie eller samfunnshistorie, Historisk Tidsskrift, 3, p Ida Blom (1985): Kvinnehistorie. Et ledd i historieforskningen og et ledd i kvinneforskningen, Historisk Tidsskrift, 4, p Gro Hagemann (1986): Kvinnehistorie. Faglig blindspor eller fruktbar disi plin?, Historisk Tidsskrift, 3, p Rolf Danielsen, Ståle Dyrvik, Tore Grønlie, Knut Helle and Edgar Hovland (1991): Grunntrekk i norsk historie fra vikingtid til våre dager (Universitetsforlaget: Oslo). Bo Stråth (2005): Union og demokrati. Dei sameinte rika Noreg-Sverige (Pax forlag: Oslo). 18

21 gender history then, now and in the future to critique this approach and indicate where including a gender perspective would have opened new understandings of the past. 12 During all that time inspiration could be found in international contacts. The Nordic conferences on women s now gender history continued to broaden transnational contacts. This also happened at an even more international level. At the World History Conference in Bucharest in 1980, one of the main sessions, for the first time ever was women s history. This greatly stimulated international contacts among historians of women. In 1987 the International Federation for Research in Women s History was established. Two years later this organisation was accepted as an internal commission within the International Committee for Historical Sciences. That meant that since 1990 every world history conference has included special sessions on gender history. The latest one in Amsterdam in 2010 featured no less than 80 papers and sessions stretching over two days. 13 At the same time gender history perspectives were also presented at a number of the general sessions of the world conference. This approach to the past had come to stay. Interestingly, during the 1980 s curiosity about women s history also grew outside of academia. One of the big Norwegian publishing firms asked if it would be possible to write a women s world history, meant for the general public. This was a new approach to a long and popular tradition of publishing ten to twelve volumes of world histories or of Norwegian history at 15 to 20 years intervals. But at that time writing a women s world history was a difficult project. Literature on women s history in different parts of the world was still scarce. Still, six Norwegian and four Danish researchers, among them two of my male colleagues (Christian Meyer, Sverre Bagge, Sølvi Sogner, Kari Vogt, Else Skjønsberg, Ida Blom, Eva Maria Lassen, Nanna Damsholt, Grethe Jacobsen, Bente Rosenbeck), toiled with writing three volumes of women s world history, published in 1992 and Looking back and seeing the magnificent world histories later published elsewhere I think this was a somewhat premature project. But it was a suc- 12. Ida Blom (1992): Refleksjoner over Grunntrekk i norsk historie, Historisk Tidsskrift 1992, 3, p Ida Blom (2006): Union, demokrati og kjønn, Historisk Tidsskrift, 85, 3, p Ida Blom (ed.) (1992): Cappelens kvinnehistorie, vol. 1 and 2 (Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag and Copenhagen: Politikens Forlag). 19

22 Ida blom cess. In a televised program the books were awarded the first Brage Prize, a prize for outstanding publications within specialist literature. And no doubt for those of us engaged in this project, it increased interest in what is today called transnational history. Well, that was then. What is Norwegian gender history today? gender history NOW It should be stressed that now finally gender history also considers men as gendered individuals. Studies of the changing importance of the role as provider for the family or of what it meant to be a father are now published, and so is the intersection of masculinity, age, and class. 15 The blossoming field of the history of sexuality has added to the understanding not only of femininity, but also of masculinity, of homosexuality and lesbianism as well as trans-sexuality. But it should be said that these fields have been pioneered by Swedish historians. 16 In Norway these themes so far seem to have attracted attention both among literary critics, sociologists and historians Hilde Gunn Slottemo (2003): Fabrikkarbeider, far og forsørger. Menn og mann lig het ved koksverket i Mo i Rana, Nr. 41 (Trondheim: Skriftserie fra Historisk institutt). Ronny B. Skaar (2003): Forsørgelse og omsorg. Farsrollen i norsk barnelovgivning Master thesis in history. Electronic reproduction (Bergen: Diskurs forlag). Jørgen Lorentzen (2012): Farskapets historie i Norge: (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget). 16. Jens Rydström (2001): Odd Couples. A History of Gay Marriage in Scandinavia (Aksant: Amsterdam). Svante Norrhem, Jens Rydström and Hanna Winkvist (2008): Undantagsmänniskor. En svensk HBT-historia (Stockholm: Norstedts Akademiska Förlag). 17. Tone Hellesund (2008): Identitet på liv og død. Marginalitet, homoseksualitet og selvmord (Spartacus: Oslo). Bjørn Bandlien (2011): Sexuality in early Church Laws in Norway and Iceland in Per Andersen, Mia Münster-Swendsen et al. (eds.) (2011): Law and private life in the Middle Ages, Proceeding of the Sixth Carlsberg Academy Conference on Medieval Legal History, Copenhagen 2009, DJØF, Copenhagen, p Runar Jordåen (2003): Frå synd til sjukdom? Konstruksjonen av mannleg homoseksualitet i Norge, Master thesis, University of Bergen. Runar Jordåen (2008a): Concepts of same sex sexuality in Norwegian forensic psychiatry in Astri Andresen, Tore Grønli, William Hubbard, Ryymin Teemu and Svein Atle Skålevåg (eds.), Citizens, Courtrooms, Crossings. Conference Proceeding, 20

23 gender history then, now and in the future It is encouraging to see that gender history is now more often included in general historical studies. A textbook in women s history, now in its fifth edition, is used at some introductory university courses. The latest four volume version of Norwegian history, Norvegr, published in 2011, successfully integrates gender, featuring for instance a full chapter on the culture of patriarchy and later telling the story of the new women s movement in the 1970 s. 18 Another important tendency in today s gender history is cooperation across national borders in big research projects. While Norwegian historical research generally has been criticized for a methodological national ism, focusing mainly on national history, gender historians have published a number of Nordic comparative studies of marriage laws, of welfare politics and gender. An even greater number of European countries have been included in studies of work and welfare and in legislation on venereal diseases. Analyses of missionary activities have of course been especially fruit ful in going beyond national borders. 19 Transnational history promotes discussions on similarities as well as differences among countries that are often assumed to constitute a homog- Bergen. Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, p Runar Jordåen (2008b): Zur Geschichte der Magnus Hirschfeld-Rezeption in Norwegen, in Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld Gesellschaft, 39/40, p Ida Blom, Sølvi Sogner, Gro Hagemann, Kari Melby, Hilde Sandvik and Ingvild Øye (2010, 1st edition 2005): Med kjønnsperspektiv på norsk historie. Fra vikingtid til 2000-årsskiftet (Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk forlag). Hans Jacob Orning (ed.) (2011): Norvegr. Norges historie. Vol. 4 (Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co.). 19. Kari Melby et al. (2006): Inte ett ord om kärlek. Äktenskap och politik i Norden ca (Göteborg/Stockholm: Makadam förlag). Kari Melby, Anne-Birte Ravn and Christina Carlsson-Wetterberg (eds.) (2008): Gender equality and welfare politics in Scandinavia. The limits of political ambition? (Bristol: Policy Press). Gro Hagemann (ed.) (2007): Reciprocity and redistribution. Work and welfare reconsidered (Pisa: Edizione Plus). Ida Blom (2012): Medicine, morality and political culture. Legislation on venereal disease in five Northern European countries, c c (Lund: Nordic Acad emic Press). Inger Marie Okkenhaug & Ingvild Flaskerud (2005): Gender, religion and change in the Middle East. Two hundred years of history (Oxford/New York: Berg). Nefisse Naguib & Inger Marie Okkenhaug (eds.) (2008): Interpreting welfare and relief in the Middle East (Leiden: Brill). Inger Marie Okkenhaug, Hilde Nielssen & Karina Hestad Skeie (eds.) (2011): Protestant missions and local encounters in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the ends of the world (Leiden: Brill). 21