Janus-faced Clio. Gender in the Historical Profession in Europe

In 1737 Pompeo Batoni depicted Clio with a woman’s face hiding a male head. It was all very well representing history as a feminine allegory, but deep down history was man’s business. Significantly, a century afterwards and more, women historians would still be described as women with men’s brains. This chapter springs from a state-of-the-art discussion. It uses memories and literary sources to present opinions, stereotypes, habits and ambiguities lurking at the gender border of the history profession. Drawing on a broad statistical survey she has been directing as part of the NHIST project of the European Science Foundation, the author reviews the statistical data on the male/ female ratio among tenured university and research centre historians throughout Europe from 1928 to 2005. Though slowly growing in absolute terms, there is a fall in the percentage of women, and still a dearth at the top of the career. One country alone reverses this trend: Greece, where the number of official women historians teaching in universities and active at research centres currently exceeds that of men. The chapter ends by examining certain independent women scholars who have remained outside the academic system, although university-trained and able to meet the highest scientific standards. At times their books have encountered great success and been a constant source of income.