Open research questions in Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

What the literature leaves open

• The lack of understanding of the parallels between the actions of Catholic women in Mexico and Spain. The need for an analysis of the transmission of news and ideas across the Atlantic. The gap in knowledge about the role of Catholic identity in the efforts of women in both countries.

  One Cross, Two Continents: How Catholic Women’s Resistance in Mexico Inspired Their Spanish Counterparts (1926–1936) · 2025 · DOI

• The aim of this study is to strengthen the literature by examining a understudied field and to widen the analytical frameworks for understanding gendered consumption.

  What do we eat to celebrate masculinity and femininity in contemporary Russia? a netnography approach · 2025 · DOI

• The extension of the strongwomen concept to other countries. The examination of the gender performances and ideologies of male leaders in the populist radical right. The analysis of the impact of the strongwomen concept on the populist radical right's policies and ideologies.

  Strongwomen? Female Leaders in the Populist Radical Right in France and Italy · 2026 · DOI

• The understudied concept of strongwomen in the populist radical right. The lack of comparative analysis of female leadership in the populist radical right.

  Strongwomen? Female Leaders in the Populist Radical Right in France and Italy · 2026 · DOI

• The paper is limited by its focus on a specific historical context and geographical region. It may not be generalizable to other contexts or populations. The paper also acknowledges the limitations of its qualitative research approach, including the potential for bias and the reliance on self-reported data.

  GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the existing research on gender and intersectionality, particularly in the context of male-dominated fields. It highlights the need for further research on the intersection of gender, sexuality, and religion. The paper also identifies a gap in the consideration of intersectionality in policy and practice.

  GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft · 2026 · DOI

• The book fills a gap in the history of construction and deconstruction by exploring the role of women. The book provides a feminist perspective on the development of technology and art.

  Susanne Altmann, 2024: When Technology Was Female. Histories of Construction and Deconstruction, 1917–1989. Amsterdam: If I Can’t Dance. 320 Seiten. 20,18 Euro · 2026 · DOI

• The paper suggests that future research should focus on the development of new artworks and exhibitions that challenge traditional notions of femininity. The study highlights the importance of promoting diversity and inclusivity in the art world. The paper suggests that future research should engage with the concept of performativity and its relation to gender and sexuality.

  Le sexe féminin dans l’art contemporain : un organe en performance · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature on feminist art and theory, highlighting the need for a more nuanced understanding of femininity. The study finds that traditional notions of femininity have been dominant in art history, and that there is a need for a more diverse and inclusive representation of the female body.

  Le sexe féminin dans l’art contemporain : un organe en performance · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in current research, which often overlooks the intersectional discrimination faced by women with disabilities. The study highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the intersectional discrimination experienced by women with disabilities.

  Género, discapacidad y discriminación interseccional: barreras en la salud, trabajo y educación superior · 2026 · DOI

• Initially popularized by Rosie the Riveter, the boiler suit symbolizes women’s feminist labor during WWII, however it remains understudied in feminist scholarship.

  Barbies in boiler suits: wartime fashion, feminist labor, and intermediated popular culture · 2025 · DOI

• Despite Argentinian Alicia Moreau's significant writings on war, her international thought remains unknown in Latin America, and in the histories of international thought and IR.

  Alicia Moreau's socialist feminism on war: transcending western narratives? · 2024 · DOI

• Future research should explore the intersectionality of racism, sexism, and classism and its impact on black women's lives. It should examine the ways in which black women can fight for black liberation and gender equality simultaneously.

  Black women’s quest for identity: A critical Study of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun · 2023 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the intersectionality of racism, sexism, and classism and its impact on black women's lives. It highlights the need for more research on black women's experiences and their quest for identity.

  Black women’s quest for identity: A critical Study of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun · 2023 · DOI

• In fact this emphasises different forms of subjectivity on the basis of complex and multilayered power relations rather than being limited to a movement of critical opposition to the subject's false universality (150).

  Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), ISBN: 978-0-231-15389-8 · 2014 · DOI

• Katie Sutton's study, which grew out of her doctoral dissertation, explores the portrayal of one of the under-researched types of the New Woman, the masculine woman, in Berlin-based mainstream print media, six sub-cultural magazines aimed at homosexual women, and selected films and literary texts, in order to reveal the diversity and complexity of female masculinities in the Weimar Republic.

  The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany · 2011 · DOI

• An intriguing, if little known, autobiography, Femme d'Afrique by Aoua Keita (1975), is a valuable social document which allows us to reconstruct women's response to the independence movement in the French Soudan (now Mali).

  Aoua Keita and the Nascent Women's Movement in the French Soudan · 1993 · DOI

• The paper identifies the challenge of understanding the complex and contradictory nature of the Scandinavian welfare states. It highlights the need to consider the gendered nature of the welfare state.

  The Scandinavian Welfare States- Towards Sexual Equality or a New Kind of Male Domination? · 1987 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature on the welfare state, which has disregarded the concept of gender. It argues that a feminist perspective is necessary to understand the Scandinavian welfare states.

  The Scandinavian Welfare States- Towards Sexual Equality or a New Kind of Male Domination? · 1987 · DOI

• The experiences of Melanesian women in the labour trade have been overlooked - The image of Melanesian women in the labour trade needs to be reevaluated

  THE FORGOTTEN WOMEN: A HISTORY OF MIGRANT LABOUR AND GENDER RELATIONS IN VANUATU · 1987 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of social inequality, particularly between men and women. It highlights the need to re-examine the biological and cultural explanations for gender-based division of labor and inequality.

  The Shifting Paradigms of Primordial Unit of Social Reality and the Swerving Ideologies on Women’s Situation in Society: A Cognitive Analysis · 1987 · DOI

• The authors suggest that future research should focus on integrating feminist perspectives into disciplinary research. They note that there is a need for further study of the reception given to feminist scholarship in different disciplines.

  Women at the core: Feminist scholarship and anthropology · 1987 · DOI

• The authors identify a gap in the integration of feminist perspectives into disciplinary research. They note that there is still a need for caution and pessimism about the prospects of the integration of feminist perspectives into disciplinary research.

  Women at the core: Feminist scholarship and anthropology · 1987 · DOI

• Future research should continue to explore the historical connections between women, humanism, and sociology. The study suggests the need for further research on the contributions of women sociologists and their significance in the history of sociology.

  An American Dream: The Historical Connections between Women, Humanism, and Sociology, 1890-1920 · 1987 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the contributions of women sociologists and their significance in the history of sociology. The study highlights the need to reclaim the legacy of women sociologists and promote a more nuanced understanding of the history of sociology.

  An American Dream: The Historical Connections between Women, Humanism, and Sociology, 1890-1920 · 1987 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

• Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis · The American Historical Review · 1986 · 1,655 citations
• Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory · Signs · 1982 · 644 citations
• Racial Europeanization · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2006 · 495 citations
• Gender, Habitus and the Field · Theory Culture & Society · 1999 · 491 citations
• Theorising Patriarchy · Sociology · 1989 · 474 citations
• Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical Perspectives · Annual Review of Sociology · 1989 · 436 citations
• The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a more Progressive Union · Capital & Class · 1979 · 427 citations
• Postfeminism, popular feminism and neoliberal feminism? Sarah Banet-Weiser, Rosalind Gill and Catherine Rottenberg in conversation · Feminist Theory · 2019 · 408 citations
• Women's Time · Signs · 1981 · 399 citations
• The Family as the Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework · Signs · 1981 · 393 citations

Most recent work

• The ‘hidden roots’ of neoliberal fascism: race, gender and the intensification of neoliberal hegemony · Distinktion Journal of Social Theory · 2026
• Witchcraft and Patriarchy · Current Anthropology · 2026
• More than victims of the state: a visual archive of queer desire in socialist Bulgaria · Visual Studies · 2026
• Jennifer Ramme: Strittige Geschlechterordnungen. Kämpfe feministischer und LGBTQ*-Bewegungen in Polen und Europa · FEMINA POLITICA – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft · 2026
• Lenge Nahau i mat : articulating gendered historicities between mortuary time and archival space · History and Anthropology · 2026
• Strongwomen? Female Leaders in the Populist Radical Right in France and Italy · Politics & Gender · 2026
• Book Review: Debra Kaplan & Elisheva Carlebach. A Woman Is Responsible for Everything: Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe · Contemporary Jewry · 2026
• Correction to: The Roots of Equality?: Marital Age Homogamy and Female Agency in Lesotho, 1880-Present · Canadian Studies in Population · 2026
• Theorizing the Monogamous State: Intersections of Race, Coloniality, and Sexuality · Sociological Theory · 2026
• The World of Poor Eve: Re-defining Women’s Roles in Nineteenth Century Utopian Communities · Communal Societies · 2026

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