The History of Masculinity: An Outdated Concept?

Abstract

It may seem premature to raise the possibility of a redundant specialism when, as recently as the mid-1980s, the history of masculinity did not yet exist in Britain. Indeed, the very idea was absent from academic and popular discourse. Its modest beginnings were associated less with the discipline of history than with sociology; politically and conceptually it was indebted to socialist feminism. Those influences were critical at what turned out to be foundational moment for the history of masculinity. In September 1988 the theory section of the British Sociological Association convened in Bradford. The event was dominated by academics in social theory and social policy. Interest in history on the part of the delegates was minimal.1 But the conference was attended by a small number of historians, and the outcome for them was an informal study group — the first forum of any kind in Britain in which the history of masculinity was discussed. In due course the group produced the first theorised collection of essays on the history of masculinity in Britain.2 Even so, progress thereafter was slow. A panel on masculinity at a History Workshop in 1992 was thinly attended. The following year the theme of the Institute of Historical Research’s annual Anglo-American Conference was gender, but only a few papers on masculinity were featured. R.W. Connell was not far wrong in stating in 1993 that serious historical work on themes of masculinity was ‘extremely rare’.3