Gender and Economy The 18th Annual Gustav Vasa Conference June 17-18, 2020, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
In historical research, different roles of sexes / genders in society have long been debated. In the study of economic and business history, gender has become a more prominent topic only relatively recently. Therefore, the economy and its agents in the past still appear very masculine. Outside women´s work and labor market participation, the role of women in the economy and, more generally, the impact of gender on economic opportunities and performance have only begun to find their way as objects of historical research. When a gender perspective has been applied to economic and business history research, many interesting recent findings have been made about how gender roles have affected both men and women’s economic opportunities, either by limiting or enabling action. Additionally, many established assumptions have been challenged: it has been shown how women were active participants in the early modern credit markets as lenders, borrowers, savers and investors and played an important role in family businesses. Similarly, women were also politically active and aimed to secure their own economic interests in the political arena. What these studies have in common is to overcome the problem of silence in the original sources telling about female economic agency.
The theme of the 2020 Annual Gustav Vasa Conference is Gender and Economy. It is through this conference that we aim to further promote this debate about gender in the economy. We welcome presentations on a wide range of topics addressing any era, region, and economic and business history theme or labor history from a gender history perspective. We encourage but do not limit participants to consider what the role of gender in the economy has been at different times, in different societies and communities, and what have been the opportunities and barriers for men and women as economic actors.
The keynote lectures will be given by Professor Anne E. C. McCants (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States) and Pirita Frigren PhD (University of Turku, Finland).