Women's History and Family History: Fruitful Collaboration or Missed Connection?

Abstract

Although the intellectual projects of women's history and family his tory have been diverse, there have been some fruitful interrelationships as well as continuing disagreements about conceptualization and method. A systematic exami nation was carried out of the content of articlespublished in the period 1976-1985 in the Journal of Family History, in three self-defined feminist or women's studies journals, and in four general historical journals. Definitions of the two fields were derived from this exercise. These show that women's history, unlike family history, is movement history; it is closer to more central historical fields in the kinds of questions it asks and in method. Because of its role in placing women as a group into a context of family relationships, family history has an important contribution to make to women's history. To the extent that diversity among women, institutions and informal politics become more central to women's history, it will come closer to family history.