Scholarship on Women, Gender, and the Reformation: Developments in Recent Years

Abstract

Traditional historical studies, written and presented by conventional historians, capture the male experience and present this experience as universal. It is for this reason that traditional historical studies have been called “Men’s History.” Within these studies women are not typically mentioned unless they were related to an important male figure or “very occasionally and exceptionally, women who performed roles generally reserved for men.” In other words, women are not usually considered worth discussing in historical works that follow traditional historical methods. Conventional historians exclude women because they are solely considered in relation to marriage, family life, and the “house” and thus appear to have no history of their own. Heide Wunder explains that “their economic, social, and cultural accomplishments were seen as ‘close to nature,’ or of minor importance, or the result merely of passive execution.” Conventional historians and traditional historical methods neglect social contexts and are oriented toward political or constitutional