Do you see many women working in history fields?

by Snazzyer

I have never met a girl who is legitimately interested in history, especially military history, in my life. I've met plenty who are somewhat knowledgeable about the subject, but they don't have any hobbies related to it. I've had a history teacher who is a woman, but she told me that she enjoys working with kids more than the actual subject. Am I just blind? I'm not looking for dating advise nor am I trying to confirm any prejudice, I'm just legitimately curious if any of you have met any women who are passionate about a field of history, since I swear I've never seen it myself.

sunagainstgold

I'm not sure what you mean by "legitimately interested."

  • About 16% of AskHistorians readers are women.
  • About 16% of AskHistorians flaired users (expert answer writers) are women
  • (for context, reddit is probably about 15% women, per redditors' own data analysis)
  • 32% of 12th grade history teachers in the US in 2000 were women
  • 43% of new history MAs in 2000 were earned by women
  • 40% of new history PhDs in 2000 were earned by women
  • 35% of new history professors in 2007 were women

I got some news for you. If you read AskHistorians, you have indeed seen women "legitimately interested in history" for yourself.

Commustar

My undergraduate adviser was a woman, and I had female professors for classes in Soviet history, Native American history, African decolonization, Latin American dictatorship, who were all in the history department.

In African History/African studies/African Archaeology, there are some tremendously accomplished scholars like Susan Keech McIntosh, Ann Brower Stahl, Sonja Magnavita, Ghislane Lydon, Beatrix Heintze, Caroline Elkins.

Of course there are women passionate about history.

riionz

In the United Kingdom, a large portion of History undergraduates are female. At Cambridge and Oxford, women make up 49% and 48% of History undergraduates respectively. This figure is around the same for other major Universities also.

Also in the UK, there's plenty of famous female Television historians, such as Suzannah Lipscomb, Bettany Hughes, Lucy Worsley, Kate Williams, Mary Beard and Janina Ramirez.

It's an absolute myth that they don't exist, at least here.