Collections and gender bias

Recent research on the collections of five major museums of natural history has revealed the bias in favour of male specimens. The study analysed almost 2.5 million specimens dating from 1751 to 2018 and the methodology took into account factors such as sex ratios (which in some species tend to favour males) and sample size to avoid chance (here min. 100 representatives). Even so, the figures they obtained for some species suggest collection bias: 60% of the birds and 52% of the mammals were male. The explanations put forward are only partly satisfactory. If it is true that the males are generally more aggressive and possess more showy features, thus being more likely to find themselves ‘in trouble’, for species with similar looking male and female and for those caught with traps the hunting bias is less convincing (more details here). Research conducted in other historical museum collections shows a similar bias. For example a study of the photographic and documentary archives of historical excavations from several institutional repositories in North America, shows that, up to the mid 20^th century at least, women archaeologists were sidelined in the photographic evidence and their contribution obfuscated by biased research practices (Heitman 2017).

If museums have historically encoded gender bias in their collections and displays, libraries have been no different. Library history has been essentially a man’s history (Kerslake and Moody 2000) and for various reasons. The lack of data (Kerslake 2007), objective difficulties of retracing the sources, and the failure to include methodologies advocated by feminist theory (West 2000), all account for an under-researched area of LIS. Failing to acknowledge this bias and do something about it means perpetrating gender stereotypes or, worse, alienating contemporary audiences (Sullivan 2004).

For libraries, however, a more radical step to redress the historical imbalance has been to openly flip the bias and build collections around the marginalised constituency, i.e. the so-called ‘Women’s libraries’. For my independent study module I have decided to explore the emergence and role, of (a selection of) libraries that collect, preserve, and showcase women’s contribution to literature, history, culture, society etc. In Europe these libraries came into existence with the rise of the women’s movement but at different times and within different institutional contexts.

My project is a comparative study of women’s libraries  in the UK, Italy and Spain, and will focus in particular on those linked to the second-wave feminist movement. I will attempt to answer the following questions:  How have different histories and different traditions informed the creation of women’s libraries, their purposes, and the contents of their collections? How have they developed over time? What can their patterns of use tell us about their patrons? And what do their initiatives and events reveal to us about contemporary (different?) engagement with feminist thought and issues?

 

References

Cooper, N. et al. (2019). ‘Sex biases in bird and mammal natural history collections’, Proceedings of the Royal Society, 286. 1913, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2025

Heitman, C. (2017). ‘The creation of gender bias in museum collections: Recontextualizing Archaeological and Archival Collections from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Museum Antrhopology, 40.2: 128-142, https://doi.org/10.1111/muan.12139

Kerslake, E., and N. Moody (eds), (2000). Gendering library history, Liverpool: John Moores University, Association for Research in Popular Fictions.

Kerslake, E. (2007). ‘’They Have Had to Come down to the Women for Help!’ Numerical Feminization and the Characteristics of Women’s Library Employment in England, 1871-1974.’ Library History 23.1 : 17-40.

Sullivan. R. (2004). ‘Evaluating the ethics and consciences of museums’ in Anderson, G. Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira, 257-264.

West, S. (2000). ‘Rare Books and Rare Women: gender and private libraries 1660-1830’ in: Kerslake, E. and N. Moody (eds), Gendering library history, Liverpool: John Moores University, Association for Research in Popular Fictions, 179-195.