Gender in English Society, 1650-1850: The Emergence of Separate Spheres?

Themes in British Social History

by W.A. Speck

Book by Shoemaker, Robert B.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Gender

344 pages, Hardcover

First published March 6, 1998

About the author

William Arthur Speck (born 1938) is a British historian specializing in late 17th and 18th-century British and American history.

Speck was educated at Bradford Grammar School and The Queen's College, Oxford, gaining a BA in 1960 and a D.Phil in 1966. He is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Leeds and a Special Professor in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham where he co-convenes an Interdisciplinary Eighteenth-Century Research Seminar.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shoemaker characterizes the long 18th century as marked by increased separation of male and female roles. Since the book was published 1998, this argument was hardly novel; in fact, it followed a decade of increased questioning of the adequacy of this model following the 1989 translation of Habermas' The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society and its more nuanced examination of the public/private divide. Shoemaker alludes briefly to this historiographical debate in his short conclusion but does not proceed to any in-depth conceptual discussion, perhaps because he covers the more theoretical dimensions of this subject in another work coauthored with Mary Vincent. This collection includes material by Amanda Vickery (an established critic of the separate spheres model), John Tosh, and Leonore Davidoff, Gisela Bock, Joan W. Scott, and Lyndal Roper.

I would recommend this book primarily for undergraduate history majors. Chapters are arranged thematically: sexuality, family life, religion, politics, society and culture. It is clear and easy enough to follow, although as one may guess from the preceding paragraph, somewhat dated in its lack of theoretical engagement. It also fails to discuss the feminist movement and its role in shaping this field of study -- note that "gender," as was generally the case in this period, means "women".

[Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

really a 3.5* for moi i think

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So informative! I loved this!!!
(I read this through the months of January and February for my master’s dissertation)