{"id":1528,"date":"2019-10-24T22:57:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T21:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=1528"},"modified":"2019-10-25T12:13:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T11:13:23","slug":"celebrating-gender-history-at-queens-university-an-exhibition-honouring-the-career-of-professor-mary-odowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/celebrating-gender-history-at-queens-university-an-exhibition-honouring-the-career-of-professor-mary-odowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Gender History at Queen’s University: An exhibition honouring the career of Professor Mary O’Dowd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Professor Mary O’Dowd<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNatalie Zemon Davs described women\u2019s history as being essentially about asking the question \u2018and what about the women?\u2019 of all historical research, even where \u2018at first glance it may seem hard to find evidence\u2019” <\/strong><\/em>So began Mary O\u2019Dowd\u2019s<\/a> 2005 survey of the history of women in early modern Ireland \u2013 a book that reviewed abundant historical sources alongside a significant and growing range of published research while at the same time establishing a 21st century research agenda for the history of women in Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing research outlined by O\u2019Dowd in 2005 was in stark contrast to that noted thirteen years earlier when she and her co-authors posed a challenge to mainstream Irish history, the dominant discourses of which up to that point had effectively excluded the experience of Irish women. This article outlined a new agenda for women\u2019s history in 1990s Ireland and noted that although by then recognised as a legitimate field of study, women\u2019s history in Ireland was \u201cstill at a \u2018pioneering\u2019 stage\u2019. As the dominant discourses in Irish history excluded women, the way forward was to encourage extensive research into the history of Irish women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n