Professor Kathryn Gleadle
Professor of Gender and Women's History
Mansfield College
01865 (2)82896
My research centres on British political culture in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and on the experiences of women and children in this period. I am especially interested in the gendered dynamics of civic engagement. My works in this field include British women in the nineteenth century (Palgrave Macillan, 2001) and Borderline citizens: women, gender and political culture, 1780-1860 (British Academy and OUP, 2009).
I am interested in exploring the agency of those who have been excluded from traditional political narratives. This includes researching the involvement of British children in the political process during the age of reform, including their contribution to pressure-group campaigning, elections, and petitions. I am also currently writing a book on girlhood manuscript cultures and British civic life. This study will range across the long nineteenth century, looking especially at girls’ diaries.
I welcome the opportunity to work with graduates in any of these fields and am happy to discuss possible projects with prospective applicants.
Borderline Citizens: women, gender and political culture in Britain, 1815-1867 (Oxford, 2009)
This volume provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of women's involvement in British political culture in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is based upon extensive archival research, but also engages with recent feminist theories in the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology. The volume is innovative too for its attention to rural experiences of politics, as well as urban. Dr Gleadle not only throws new light on women's political activities but also does much to challenge many traditional assumptions about contemporary politics per se. This includes, for example, fresh insights into the great Reform Act of 1832, attention to the many continuities in political practice and ideas, and a focus upon the primary significance of parish politics within the day-to-day activities of the middling and gentry classes.
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