Writing Revolution as if Women Mattered

Abstract

Abstract:Women took part in revolutions and appear in their historical sources with more frequency than our interpretations of revolutions-as-revolutions reflect. Sources are replete with women who both moved through spaces of revolution and shaped these spaces through their movements, spaces without which revolutions as movements of people—and not just production and consumption of ideas—would be impossible. This article argues that writing revolutions as if women mattered not only is about the inclusion of women but also is the gateway into a more capacious understanding of revolutions. To do so requires an analytical shift away from revolution as intellectual work to revolution as political work. Using Iran’s armed struggle movement in the lead up to the 1979 revolution, this article demonstrates how this distinction brings into focus aspects of revolutions that were formed in the ephemerality of action and, at times, inaction, thus expanding what counts as revolutionary history, valid methods for historical inquiry, sources, and interpretation.