Los estudios de historia y género en América Latina

Abstract

Objective/Context: With this article we undertake, on the one hand, to make an analytical reflection on the category of gender from a few representative studies that use it as a tool for analysis and interpretation in historical studies, showing the appropriation, advances, and uses of this category over the last three decades in Latin America. On the other hand, we present the articles that comprise this dossier, which, given their thematic variety, constitute advances in the relationship between history and gender. Methodology: In the construction of the article, we picked up on research carried out by academics who, from different perspectives and positions, have dealt with the relationship between history and gender in scientific articles, research texts, and books, originating from investigations in research groups, conferences, and colloquia, in the countries of the region. The article, however, does not pretend to cover all topics, all approaches, and all methods, much less be a reflection of all the relevant work that has been produced in the historical discipline, carried out in the various Latin American academies, otherwise, varied and with uneven developments. Originality: The text emphasizes that the relationship between history and gender is in itself a long-standing construction, identifying certain aspects in the evolution of the category of gender, its relational character with other categories, other notions and other concepts, and describing a set of fields for renewal and new perspectives in historical research on gender. Conclusions: In this approach, we conclude that it becomes increasingly necessary when using the category of gender that it not be understood as a synonym for “women”; that it be used in a relational manner being cognizant of the actions of women and men, on the basis that in the exercise of power there are also changing forces of resistance, negotiation, conflict, and consensus; that the uses of the category of gender do not replace the sense of feminisms, their contributions, and claims, nor the approaches of studies on women, and that the category and gender relations are an open topic, to think from the present about new ways of constructing reality, or of approaching past realities.