Mapping Gender History in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Bibliographic Data

Gender history, an interdisciplinary field that has expanded since the 1970s, has significantly impacted Medieval and Renaissance studies. This research analysises bibliographic data to explore trends in gender history within these fields. Using the Web of Science, this study identifies 104,130 publications from 1975 to 2023 in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index. By examining journal articles and book reviews with keywords such as women, gender, and masculinity, the study investigates how gender intersects with topics like politics, religion, and law. Findings reveal that gender historians in medieval and Renaissance studies predominantly focus on the sexuality, reflecting the intrinsic connections between sexuality, sex, body, and gender. This research also highlights a notable disparity in the representation of women’s history, gender history, and men’s history. Overall, this research maps the fifty years of gender-related scholarship and demonstrates how gender historians respond to shifting political trends.