Overview

This one-day symposium aims to bring together early career researchers and established scholars who work on any aspect of the history of gender in nineteenth and twentieth-century Wales.

It will seek to interrogate gender as a concept which encompasses both femininity and masculinity, to provide fresh perspectives on familiar themes, and to encourage delegates to consider how gender can transform broader narratives in histories of Wales.

Significant advances have been made in the field of Welsh women’s history since Deirdre Beddoe’s eminently quotable claim in 1981 that if ‘a creature from outer space landed in Wales and worked through Welsh history, she would be perplexed as to how the Welsh procreated’.

Pioneering research by historians such as Beddoe, Angela V. John and Ursula Masson has deepened our knowledge of the experiences of women in Wales’s past and how they intersected with class, religion, and political ideologies. Masculinity, too, has come under increasing scrutiny since the publication of Paul O’Leary’s call for studies of male identity.

This event will reflect on these historiographical developments during the last three decades, while also considering the gaps that remain. We plan to publish a selection of revised papers from the symposium as an edited collection.

Jointly organised by Dr Stephanie Ward and Dr Beth Jenkins, the symposium will include a roundtable discussion with Professor Angela V. John and Dr Neil Evans on the developments within the field since the publication of Our Mother’s Land in 1991.