Women's History

Oi Christianoi - Sezione antica, n. 26 ----- Su Ipazia di Alessandria e su Sinesio di Cirene molti hanno già scritto: Ipazia, una nota antica scienziata e filosofia, Sinesio, un nobile, suo allievo e poi vescovo cristiano; Ipazia, da alcuni presa in considerazione unicamente come vessillo del femminismo, Sinesio, spesso trascurato a fronte di più famosi Padri della Chiesa. La peculiarità del libro, che è frutto di un accurato studio critico delle relative fonti primarie e secondarie, consiste nel tipo di approccio: le due figure e le loro opere sono esaminate sullo sfondo dei differenti ambiti culturali in cui si sono sviluppate le vicende della loro vita, pur nella contemporaneità: la differenza di ambiti culturali consente di evidenziare di questa donna e di questo uomo non solo la validità del loro lungo rapporto amicale, testimoniate da alcune lettere di Sinesio a noi pervenute, ma anche l'alto valore interculturale di tale rapporto.

Over the last thirty years we have witnessed the emergence, formation and consolidation in Australia of the field of futures studies and foresight. Given its relative population size and geographic isolation from major centres of intellectual activity in Europe and North America, Australia has more than its fair share of futures researchers and practitioners (often called Futurists or Foresight Practitioners). Perhaps even more surprising to some is what the unwritten history reveals. This short piece shows that a significant number of the pioneers and shapers of Australian futures studies were women. Furthermore, a large proportion of futurists, researchers and foresight practitioners in Australia today are women.
The following “annotated time line” covers the last three decades from 1985 to 2015. It has been sectioned into three phases, roughly corresponding with the decades of “Pioneers”, “Institution Building” and “Professional Consolidation”. As we now move into a fourth decade of Australian futures practices we can ask “How will the contributions of Australian women futures researchers and foresight practitioners contribute to, and further develop, the complex futures for Australia and our global society?”

In an unpublished manuscript about exemplary women, Cristofano Bronzini described a visit to the Tuscan court by Giovanna Garzoni while she was still in her teens, and transcribed a poem written there in her honour. This new documentary evidence has important implications for understanding Garzoni’s artistic development in the early 1620s.

RESUMEN: Este estudio se centra en la figura de Acilia Plecusa, una esclava que fue manumitida y contrajo un matrimonio legítimo con su propietario, Manius Acilius Fronto. Ellos eran originarios de la ciudad de Singilia Barba (Baetica) y formaron parte de una importante familia hispana del siglo II d. C. Los testimonios epigráficos nos muestran el destacado ascenso social de esta liberta que se encargó de costear inscripciones para homenajear tanto a sus familiares como a sus amigos más cercanos e influyentes.

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the figura of a freedwoman, Acilia Plecusa. She was a slave, but she was manumitted and got married to her owner, Manius Acilius Fronto. They were from Singilia Barba (Baetica) and belonged to an important family of the Second Century A. D. Inscriptions show us the outstanding social climbing of this freed woman, who took charge of financing the registrations to honour, not only her relatives, but also her closest and most influential friends.

The aim of this project is to compile names and biographies of women attached to the military forces of the War for American Independence, 1775 to 1783; Whig (Continental), French, Spanish, British, German, and Loyalists. This includes females (and their offspring) who followed the troops on campaign, or served in a camp, garrison, or other settled military post (including artificers and other military support groups). Spouses and retainers of both enlisted men and officers are eligible. The project will begin with Continental army and Whig militia female followers. Eventually, my hope is to convince people with special knowledge of the other nations’ armies involved to participate.
    Material may be sent to the editor at ju_rees@msn.com or via Facebook messaging (John U. Rees). Names must be accompanied by supporting source material and a transcription of the same. Please include available pension narratives and as much detail from other sources as is available. Contributors will be listed with their submissions.

Vittoria Colonna marquioness of Pescara was involved in the Catholic Reform during the first half of XVI century. She was very close to cardinal Gasparo Contarini and cardinal Reginald Pole. Also she had paintings by Titian and Michelangelo who was one of her best friend. She invested an enormous ammount of money in Venice and her legacy was astonishing. Her poems were very popular and the new holy images invented by Michelangelo for her were diffused all around Europe througouth the "spirituali".

In this article, the author analyses the activity
of colonial institutions in the Philippines during
the Spanish period with references to its ethnic
particularities. In this sense, the “Consultas y
resoluciones varias, teológicas, jurídicas, regulares
y morales” (1687) was an illustrative example of
work about the judicial and extrajudicial resolution
of conflicts in the Philippines under the Habsburgs.
In its pages reflects the academic and colonial
career of its author, named Juan de Paz. The
casuistry and the projection of Thomist thought
are two important characteristics of his juridical
dissertation. The purpose of this paper is the study
of the “Consultas” in regard to his legal, doctrinal
and social considerations about women.

Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography demonstrates that the history and experience of Mormon women is central to the history of the Church and to histories of American religion, politics, and culture. Yet the study of Mormon women has mostly been confined to biographies, family histories, and women’s periodicals. The contributors to Mormon Women’s History engage the vast breadth of sources left by Mormon women—journals, diaries, letters, family histories, and periodicals as well as art, poetry, material culture, theological treatises, and genealogical records—to read between the lines, reconstruct connections, recover voices, reveal meanings, and recast stories.

This article presents a manuscript that significantly enriches the textual corpus of ›Helfta Mysticism‹ with a series of hitherto unknown writings. Aside from this, it contains what is by some distance the oldest copy of the ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹, in the form of a ›special edition‹ that consists of excerpts from the known text as well as new material. This is preceded by a prologue and a florilegium which is marked in an epilogue as Gertrude’s own work. We argue that the epilogue of the florilegium, the prologue and the ›special edition‹ itself were probably composed by ›Sister N‹ of Helfta herself. The article provides a full description of the manuscript (Ms 827), a breakdown of the new ›special edition‹ of the ›Legatus‹-text, and an edition, translation, and close reading of the prologue.

Im Folgenden soll eine Handschrift vorgestellt werden, die die Textbasis der Helftaer Mystik mit einer Reihe von bislang unbekannten Schriften bereichert. Außerdem enthält sie die mit Abstand älteste Abschrift des ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹ in Form einer ›Sonderausgabe‹, die aus Exzerpten aus dem bekannten Textcorpus und aus weiterem bislang nicht bekanntem Material besteht. Dieser geht eine Vorrede und ein im Epilog als Gertruds Werk ausgewiesenes Florilegium voraus, Texte, die wie die ›Sonderausgabe‹ selbst von Schwester N von Helfta stammen dürften. Die vorliegende Studie bietet eine Beschreibung von Ms 827, die Aufschlüsselung der ›Sonderausgabe‹ des ›Legatus‹ sowie Abdruck, Übersetzung und inhaltliche Analyse der Vorrede.

Au tournant des années 1970, on assiste à l’émergence d’un renouveau féministe au Québec, marquée par la création du Front de libération des femmes du Québec en 1969. Une part du mouvement féministe envisage alors les activités domestiques non plus comme faisant partie d’une « nature féminine », mais comme un véritable travail. Cette démarche s’inscrit dans la recherche d’une oppression commune à toutes les femmes et dans l’idée d’une « communauté de situation ». Le travail ménager non rémunéré apparaît alors comme le « plus petit dénominateur commun » de la condition de toutes les femmes, et ce peu importe leur statut civil, leur classe sociale ou leur occupation. Durant les années 1970 et et 1980, plusieurs débats ont lieu quant à la reconnaissance de ce travail. Si certaines féministes défendent la revendication d’un salaire au travail ménager, plusieurs d’entre elles revendiquent plutôt une socialisation de ce travail par la mise en place de services collectifs (garderies populaires, cantines, etc.). D’autres féministes, enfin, demandent la mise en place de certaines réformes gouvernementales afin de réduire la précarité financière des mères et des ménagères. Dans la présente étude, nous proposons une analyse des discours sur le travail ménager, ainsi qu’un examen des différentes avenues de reconnaissance envisagées par les féministes québécoises. En analysant les publications de collectifs féministes, de groupes de femmes et d’organismes liés à la condition féminine, nous pouvons dès lors affirmer que le travail ménager a été un thème marquant pour le cheminement théorique et militant du mouvement des femmes. Bien qu’omniprésent dans les discours féministes des années 1970 et 1980, des collectifs plus radicaux aux associations féminines réformistes, il a été bien rapidement oublié dans les bilans et dans l’historiographie. Nous tenterons alors de mettre de l’avant les discours féministes sur la reconnaissance du travail ménager comme élément de continuité au sein du mouvement féministe.

This is the catalogue to an exhibition of the same name, which took place at the Worshipful Company of Mercers and Leeds University Art Gallery. It presents fifty outstanding artworks by fifty British Women artists working between 1900 - 1950. There is an introductory essay by curator, Sacha Llewellyn, and fifty commentaries about each picture by fifty different writers. The exhibition marks the centenary of the Representation of the People's Act, and aims to readdress the dominant 'master' narrative of British art history.

Recuperando una rica tradición de libros de viajes escritos por mujeres, Mónica Szurmuk nos muestra una dimensión insospechada de la construcción de la identidad nacional argentina. Este brillante estudio de relatos de viajeras argentinas y de mujeres extranjeras en Argentina entre 1837 y 1930 revela cómo ellas, al enfocarse en los aspectos de la experiencia viajera relacionados con su papel femenino, la vida doméstica, la maternidad, la enseñanza, introdujeron importantes matices en la imagen de la argentinidad. Al salir de casa, de lo familiar, para encontrarse con lo ajeno, estas mujeres tuvieron que modificar las ideas recibidas de identidad y otredad, pero lo hicieron sin apartarse de lo que sus lectores esperaban de una escritora de su clase y raza. Especialmente sugestivo en este sentido es el análisis de la descripción del paisaje como el escenario de la construcción del sujeto autorial en su encuentro con lo otro. De igual manera reveladoras son las reflexiones de Szurmuk acerca del ambiguo significado de las fronteras de todo tipo para las mujeres que escribieron acerca de sus viajes. Este libro ofrece además importantes planteamientos acerca de la interacción de las diferencias de raza, género, clase y etnia en la formación de las ideas dominantes de la nación argentina.

На основу идејне, тематске и уметничко-стилске срод- ности која је уочена у књижевном деловању неколико београдских ауторки, у овом раду се њихов књижевни корпус и континуитет стварања
одређује терминолошком синтагмом ангажована женска проза и посматра као издвојен и целовит феномен. Циљ рада је да апстрахује основне карактеристике ове књижевноисторијске појаве која је имала ненарушен континуитет од 30-их до 50-их година 20. века и постави један од могућих појмовно-теоријских оквира за даља читања, тумачења и компаративна истраживања датог и сличних књижевних корпуса. Методолошки ослонац за опис и објашњење ангажоване женске прозе делом се може пронаћи у ранијим књижевноисториографским и теоријским
разматрањима југословенског покрета социјалне литературе, затим у Сартровом одређењу ангажоване књижевности, као и у феминистичким истраживањима историје жена, феминистичких покрета и женске књижевности. Циљ рада управо и јесте да укаже на нужност повезивања три наведена методолошка усмерења када је реч о проучавању контуинираних процеса еманципације жена којем припада и дати књижевни ток.
Тачније, Сартров концепт ангажоване књижевности артикулисан после Другог светског рата узет је као везивна нит излагања: он се примењујe на ранију, односно женску, прозу, и обратно, тумачења те прозе обогаћују дати концепт, придодајући му један дијахронијски дубљи и један потенцијални феминистички аспект. Коначно, резултати истраживања и разматрања могли би да нађу примену и у оквиру студија ангажованости које се у домаћем контексту обликују у последњих неколико година
као друштвено-хуманистичка поддисциплина

This is a bibliography of primary sources in translation prepared as a guide for students doing research projects for my undergraduate course, HST 362, on concepts of sex and gender in the Middle Ages.  The version posted here was last revised in 2011.

The book provides ample evidence to show that the women who were ordained to the diaconate during the first millennium had been sacramentally ordained. The second half of the book offers the text of the full ordination rite from six of the oldest manuscripts. Canterbury Press, London 2002;
Women Deacons in the Early Church. Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates, Herder & Herder Crossroad, New York 2006;
Vrouwen tot diaken gewijd. Historische feiten en actueel debat, Herne Heeswijk 2006 (Netherlands) and Altiora Averbode 2007 (Belgium).

Ancient Greek poetess Sappho is widely regarded as the oldest known lesbian and feminist in the Western literary history. However, this common notion represents just one in the millennia-long series of reinventions of her persona, since before the fin de siècle her heterosexuality was viewed as an almost indisputable truth. This paper
argues that, throughout the history, the reception of Sappho’s poetry was inevitably faced with the question of her sexuality, which was addressed in very divergent ways. It first uses the theoretical concepts of “Trojan horse” and “compulsory heterosexuality” as outlined by feminist critics Monique Wittig and Adrienne Rich to demonstrate that (homo)erotic sentimentality of Sappho’s magnificent poems produced a moral complex in Western heteropatriarchal societies, which sought to tame and reclaim that poetry by heterosexualizing it. The paper then turns to a diachronic analysis of various discursive strategies of heterosexualization within the Western literary and philological discourses from antiquity to modernity and contrasts them with the contemporary discourse of homosexualization, thus showing that the reception of Sappho’s poetry can be conceptualized as an ideological battle between traditional epistemological regime of compulsory heterosexuality on the one hand and modern political aspiration for women’s and lesbian emancipation, on the other hand. Finally, the article illustrates how contemporary philological and historical research on Sappho, in an attempt to escape that ideological battle, unconsciously falls victim to this millennia-long misogyny.

Monica H. Green, “Bodies, Gender, Health, Disease: Recent Work on Medieval Women’s Medicine,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd series, vol. 2 (2005), 1-46.

Abstract: This long essay review summarizes work in the field of History of Medicine as it relates to topics on women and gender in the medieval world—mostly focusing on western Europe but bringing in some comparative work. It supplements and expands upon two earlier reviews of the field that I did in 1989 and 1993. Topics include:
(1) a review of edited texts (where I argue that “we have perhaps reached the point of critical mass, where enough work has been done to identify both the major continuities and the major novelties in the textual traditions of women’s medicine”);
(2) “technologies of the body,” a term I have coined to refer to “a group of techniques, beliefs, and practices focused on intervening in the functioning of the body (including, but not limited to, the alleviation of pain)” and which I propose as a definition wider than “medicine” to capture the focus on cosmetics, promotion of fertility (rather than contraceptives), and even andrology in many medieval texts on women’s medicine;
(3) sex differences as they were understood in medieval medical literature, which challenge Laqueur’s idea of a “one-sex body,” including beliefs in male menstruation, the emphasis on “provoking the menses” in texts on women’s medicine, and the impact of the “new Aristotle” starting in the 13th century, especially new interest in the nature of generation;
(4) women as medical agents, a concept I develop here to circumvent the limiting vocabulary of medical professionalization and encompass women’s various engagements with healthcare, including as readers of medical texts and recipes, the lack of evidence for professionalized midwives before the 14th cent.;
(5) childbirth as a female space, where I contest the assumption that childbirth was exclusively a female concern and show instead that there are a variety of ways pregnancy, childbirth, and wetnursing can be analyzed as gendered phenomena; and
(6) future directions, where I explore topics and methodologies that might yet prove valuable.
The essay draws on medical anthropology both for conceptual analyses of the workings of gender, but also (via ethnographies) as a source of comparative material.

This review is 3rd in a series of 4 essays I have done reviewing literature on women, gender, and medicine in the medieval period. The others are:

Monica H. Green, “Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14 (1988-1989), 434-73; reprinted in Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages, ed. J. Bennett, E. Clark, J. O’Barr, B. Vilen, and S. Westphal-Wihl (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 39-78; reprinted again in Monica H. Green, with corrigenda in Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West: Texts and Contexts, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS680 (Aldershot, 2000).

Monica H. Green, “Recent Work on Women’s Medicine in Medieval Europe,” Society for Ancient Medicine Newsletter 21 (1993), 132–41.

Monica H. Green, “Gendering the History of Women’s Healthcare,” Gender and History, Twentieth Anniversary Special Issue, 20, no. 3 (November 2008), 487-518; reprinted in Gender and Change: Agency, Chronology and Periodisation, ed. Alexandra Shepard and Garthine Walker (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 43-82.

See also, for comprehensive bibliography up through 2009: Monica H. Green, “Bibliography on Medieval Women, Gender and Medicine, 1980-2009,” an 82-page cumulative annotated bibliography of over 375 items of European and North American scholarship published in the past 30 years, posted for free access on Sciencia.cat, http://www.sciencia.cat/english/libraryenglish/publicationssc.htm, posted 02 March 2010.

Nel secolo dei Lumi il nome di Maria Gaetana Agnesi affiora largamente nelle discussioni in atto sulla validità delle teorie newtoniane, sul calcolo infinitesimale di Leibniz e Newton, sull’istruzione femminile e il ruolo della donna nell’indagine scientifica. Nel confronto a distanza con Algarotti, la scienziata milanese promuove un newtonianesimo, delle donne e non  “per le donne”, dai tratti marcatamente neostoici. La pubblicazione delle Instituzioni analitiche, che le procurò fama e prestigio in Europa, segnò poi una svolta. Ammirata da Goldoni e detta immortale da Pietro Verri, Agnesi volle costruire una propria identità di scienziata e di donna autonoma nella dimensione etica dell’impegno sociale e dell’esperienza di fede, influenzata dalla spiritualità teatina e dalla religiosità di Muratori.

Given the prominence of Muslim veils—in particular the hijab and full-face veil—in public discourse concerning the place of Muslims in Western society, we examined their impact on non-Muslims’ responses at both explicit and implicit levels. Results revealed that responses were more negative toward any veil compared with no veil, and more negative toward the full-face veil relative to the hijab: for emotions felt toward veiled women (Study 1), for non-affective attitudinal responses (Study 2), and for implicit negative attitudes revealed through response latency measures (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, we manipulated the perceived reasons for wearing a veil, finding that exposure to positive reasons for wearing a veil led to better predicted and imagined contact (Study 4). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The King's Two Bodies- Reflexion on the Symbolic of Power

Among the so-called Mari Prophetic Letters, one interesting text (ARM X 10) reports a cheerful vision of the king's return. The king, as usual, is acclaimed by the soldiers, in a formal exhibition of loyalty. Incidebtly, the scene occurs on two larges boats blocking the river course. The narrative also mentions several insigna embedded within the military acclamations. Since the symbolic character of the omen is highly significant, I discuss the account through interpretative ethnography.

It is sometimes argued that the non-therapeutic, non-consensual alteration of children’s genitals should be discussed in two separate ethical discourses: one for girls (in which such alterations should be termed ‘female genital mutilation’ or FGM), and one for boys (in which such alterations should be termed ‘male circumcision’). In this article, I call into question the moral and empirical basis for such a distinction, and argue that all children—whether female, male, or intersex—should be free from having parts of their genitals removed unless there is a pressing medical indication.

ABSTRACT. In the years following the end of the cold
war in 1989, Western feminist scholars and activists
expressed disappointment in the failure of the newly
democratic Eastern and Central European countries to
sustain mainstream women’s rights movements and
achieve a marked increase in women’s participation
within the new political parties and political life in
general. The authors, historians of Hungarian women’s
movements with a broad East-West perspective, offer a
novel explanation for this phenomenon. Following an
outline of the main stages of Hungarian women’s
movements and women’s political participation, they
focus on two instances in twentieth-century Hungarian
history that resulted in a rapid transition from antidemocratic regimes to liberal, parliamentary systems:
the 1918 bourgeois democratic revolution and the
1990 re-introduction of free parliamentary elections.

DOI 10.1080/08038740410004623

Artikkelin aiheena on köyhäintalon johtajan ammatti, joka syntyi 1800-luvun lopussa kunnallisen köyhäintalojärjestelmän myötä. Valtiovalta pyrki rakentamaan köyhäintalon johtajan ammatista sivistyneiden naisten ammatin tekemällä rajatyötä, jonka perustana olivat tiedolliset, sosiaaliset ja sukupuoliset hierarkia-asemat paitsi ammattiin pyrkijöiden myös eri ammattiryhmien välillä. Valtiovallan projekti epäonnistui, koska vaatimukset olivat johtajan työn käytäntöihin nähden epärealistisia ja koska johtajan ammatti rakentui myös köyhäintaloja ympäröineiden maalaisyhteisöjen todellisuuksissa, joissa edellä mainittuja hierarkia-asetelmia käytettiin osin eri tavoin kuin valtiovallan tasolla. Köyhäintalon johtajan ammatin kehittyminen on esimerkki sosiaalialan varhaisesta valtiojohtoisesta rakentamisesta – ja sen rajoista.

Why do women in contemporary western societies experience contradiction between their autonomous and maternal selves? What are the origins of this contradiction and the associated ‘double shift’ that result in widespread calls to either ‘lean in’ or ‘opt out’? How are some mothers subverting these contradictions and finding meaningful ways of reconciling their autonomous and maternal selves?


In Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities, Petra Bueskens argues that western modernisation consigned women to the home and released them from it in historically unprecedented, yet interconnected, ways. Her ground-breaking formulation is that western women are free as ‘individuals’ and constrained as mothers, with the twist that it is the former that produces the latter.


Bueskens’ theoretical contribution consists of the identification and analysis of modern women’s duality drawing on political philosophy, feminist theory and sociology tracking the changing nature of discourses of women, freedom and motherhood across three centuries. While the current literature points to the pervasiveness of contradiction and double-shifts for mothers, very little attention has been paid to how (some) women are subverting contradiction and ‘rewriting the sexual contract’. Bridging this gap, Bueskens’ interviews ten ‘revolving mothers’ to reveal how periodic absence, exceeding the standard work-day, disrupts the default position assigned to mothers in the home, and in turn disturbs the gendered dynamics of household work.


A provocative and original work, Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities will appeal to graduate students and researchers interested in fields such as Women and Gender Studies, Sociology of Motherhood and Social and Political Theory.


Endorsements:


Petra Bueskens has been in the forefront of the new, and very welcome field of motherhood studies.  In Modern Motherhood and Women's Dual Identities: Rewriting the Sexual Contact [she analyses] the psychic, social, cultural and political challenges posed by the dual identities of mother and citizen, elegantly and capaciously ranges across 400 years of theory, up to the present, that address them, as well as providing psychologically-attuned interview documentation of how women feel and think, daily and throughout their maternal lives.
Nancy J Chodorow
Author, The Reproduction of Mothering, The Power of Feelings, Individualizing Gender and Sexuality, and other works Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley


This creative and theoretically rich book re-examines the social contradictions and penalties faced by women who want to be both caring mothers and autonomous public individuals.  Taking us beyond the logic of the "sexual contract," Bueskens introduces us to the "revolving mothers" who offer a glimpse of the social revolution required to undo the gendered separation of spheres.  A fascinating and compelling study.
Dr. Sharon Hays, author of the The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood



In this lucid, timely and important new book, Petra Bueskens takes up the formidable task of investigating the 'new sexual contract' in late modernity that leaves women strung out between the promise of autonomy in the public sphere, and the demands of motherhood that isolate and intensify mothering work in the home, both freeing and constraining women at once. Bueskens brings into view this impossible contradictory duality by producing both a new social theory of dualism, and the empirical evidence to show that it is possible to force changes in the sexual contract at the level of individual family organization. Through tracking a small group of women who both choose to mother and also spend protracted periods of time away from the family, she shows how these women produce radical shifts in the gendered dynamics of the household. Her bold and vital claim is that we can rewrite the sexual contract only if we understand the historical and contemporary double-bind that produces women's liberty as it undermines it, making motherhood still the unfinished business of feminism.
Dr. Lisa Baraitser, Reader in Psychosocial Studies, Birckbeck University, author of Maternal Encounters


Modern Mothers' Dual Identities: Rewriting the Sexual Contract cogently and compellingly elucidates a central debate in motherhood studies and a persistent dilemma in most mothers' lives; namely the contradiction between women's maternal and individualized selves.  Through her lucid theoretical ruminations on the 'new sexual contract' in late modernity and by way of an innovative empirical study on 'revolving mothers', Bueskens delivers the needed blueprints to actualize the potential of what she incisively terms 'the individualized mother'.
Dr. Andrea O'Reilly, Professor of Women's Studies, York University, Toronto, Founder and Director of the Motherhood Initiative and author of Matricentric Feminism.



In this engaging and timely book, Petra Bueskens tackles a central challenge of modern life - how to reconcile the contradictory roles of women as citizens, individual workers and mothers. She traces the history through the theoretical views of motherhood, integrating the multiple strands in a sophisticated and fascinating synthesis. She highlights periodic maternal absence as a bridge between individualism and constraint, revealing both the ambiguities and a potential way to progress women's liberation. The book is an absorbing read that makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of contemporary motherhood.
Dr. Lyn Craig, Professor of Sociology/ARC Future Fellow, The University of Melbourne, author of Contemporary Motherhood.

The text aims to present the main stages of the bibliography course about the figure of Queen Nzinga (1583-1663), since the first images described in her time until the present day. The seventeenth-century records and the colonial literature are still prevalent in the way that represented her as a woman warrior, evil and cruel. The most recent studies have emphasized the methodological problems about building the trajectory of Queen Nzinga. Today, most of the uses made of the figure of the Mbundu queen are related to the search to strengthen the construction of identity, both in Angola and Brazil. The history of Queen Nzinga illustrates narratives of ancestral ties between Africa and Brazil, and also brings great didactic elements to understand the universe of people in the Americas and Africa.