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Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History pp 69–85Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Transnationalism and the Writing of Australian Women’s History

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Abstract

If we consider that transnational history involves tracing the movements of people, resources or ideas across borders, rather than as more narrowly national creations, then the writing of Australian women’s history was indeed a transnational field from its emergence in the 1970s. The writers shared the political inspiration that arose from the international women’s movement and the transformative academic conversations that feminists canvassed. The key writers deployed transnational frameworks to intervene radically in the focus and substance of within Australian history; transnational in inspiration, their work was nationally effective in furthering debates around gender, class and race. While it may be overly optimistic to claim that feminist historians have displaced male-oriented understandings of Australia’s past, they have nevertheless provided robust counter-narratives of significance, while their theoretical innovation is a vital work in progress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Patricia Grimshaw

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  1. Patricia Grimshaw
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Anna Clark

  2. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Anne Rees

  3. Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alecia Simmonds

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Grimshaw, P. (2017). Transnationalism and the Writing of Australian Women’s History. In: Clark, A., Rees, A., Simmonds, A. (eds) Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5017-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5017-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-5016-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-5017-6

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