Women and Gender

Since the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies was first established, we have been committed to researching women and gender in the 18th century, starting with our founding staff members Harriet Guest and Jane Rendall.

Our research into women relates to social history, literary cultures, class, and especially labour for professional women, domestic servants and the working poor. Our research on women and gender covers a wide array of interdisciplinary sources, including manuscript archives, letters, literature, material culture, religious sermons and poetry, printed images and life writing. We pay particular attention to the work, labour and professional experiences of women across classes in the 18th century, within and without Britain.

In addition to paying close attention to gender and social history, we also think carefully about the fascinating connections between women writers, culture, and genre, especially when it comes to forms like poetry, the novel, correspondence and the Gothic. Our research covers a large number of women writers, including Jane Austen, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Frances Burney, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, Phillis Wheatley Peters, Mary Prince and Mary Wollstonecraft, among others. Our staff have contributed to a range of collaborative research projects, including major digitisation projects of letters and innovative editorial work.