Modern feminism and 400-year-old history met head-on yesterday at the Feminist Scholarship at Syracuse University 2005-06 Speakers’ Series.

Dympna Callaghan, a professor in the English department, spoke about ‘The Impact of Feminism in English Renaissance Studies’ in Eggers Hall for an audience of about 30. Callaghan focused her speech on 1590s England and delved into disparate theories about the role of women in society at the time.

‘There has been a tendency to evaporate women from the picture,’ Callaghan said.

The speech discussed three different views of women’s roles in society at the time. The first view was ‘the revisionist feminism,’ which overemphasizes the role and power of women at the time, especially their role in marriage, Callaghan said. This view of history uses women’s consent to marriage and their equal standing in the wedding ceremony as evidence of equality in matrimony.

Callaghan disagrees with this view, saying it was factually inadequate to the truth.

‘There remains the historical fact that women were patently unequal in the institution of marriage,’ Callaghan said.

The second view is an older approach to the time, stemming from ’70s and ’80s feminism, she said. This theory views women as entirely unequal in late 16th century English society, especially in marriage.

‘Marriage was the most important instrument of social subjection of women,’ Callaghan said.

Again, Callaghan rejects this view. Instead, she formed a third view, where a woman’s role in society at the time falls somewhere in between these two views, she said.

Callaghan explained how some women were actually able to find a footing in a dominant male world and develop themselves into something important. For example, in the 1590s, Dorothy Packington controlled selection of parliamentary representation in her town, leading to great influence over those she chose, Callaghan said. Also, women were allowed to beat household subordinates, male or female, and the state did not recognize marriages to which the woman did not consent.

Still, women were second-class citizens, Callaghan said. Denying women from voting and being on the public stage was not even written into law because it went without saying.

‘Patriarchy functions in part because it is normalized,’ Callaghan said.

Recently, the pendulum has swung toward believing the revisionist side of history, which overemphasized women’s power in a time where they stood in the middle ground of importance, Callaghan said.

In her conclusion, she urged the audience to take a more balanced approach to history at the time.

Callaghan was a good speaker because she was knowledgeable on the topic and has written seven books, mainly on Shakespeare and feminism, with several more on the way, said Linda Alcoff, director of women’s studies. Her expertise extends beyond women in society, though.

‘Her research is increasingly broad, and has covered race and class as well as gender,’ Alcoff said.

Published on November 16, 2005 at 12:00 pm