The so-called women's history from the perspective of discipline, first of all, finds its own academic orientation under the framework of the basic ideas of women's studies, and introduces the basic concepts, analytical frameworks and research methods that have been proved to be useful; In addition, she should find a place to live in history, inherit the basic tradition of historical argumentation and the outstanding achievements accumulated by predecessors, as the starting point of building the discipline of women's history, expand new horizons and make contributions to the development of history. The difference between women's history from the perspective of discipline and previous studies is that she does not write individual female characters to praise or criticize or advocate in isolation, nor does she simply talk about women as a problem group, as a symbol of modernity, nor does she talk about a small vulnerable group from the perspective of social history. On the contrary, she is an interdisciplinary subject of history and women's studies, and studies women, for women and with women under the guidance of certain academic principles. The "women" here are not essentialist and universal women, but concrete women with specific multiple identities; However, the study of women shows its activities and status in the relationship with the other sex.

This paper will briefly review the history of female-gender from the outside to the inside from the perspective of discipline, and provide reference for determining our direction, goals and issues. Innovation and exploration of theory and method

1, theory and concept: adding women-gender as an analytical category-focusing on differences and multiple identity analysis

The history of women, which rose abroad in the 1970s, is a history of adding women to traditional history. It has just come to campus from the front line of the movement, and feminist historians are determined to fill the gaps and correct mistakes for women in history, which has formed a huge challenge to traditional history. Jada, a famous woman historian? Lerner pointed out that women's history challenges historiography in seven aspects:

(1) asserts that women have their own history;

(2) Women are not a minority, but a whole gender, which is related to class and race;

(3) It is necessary to add new topics to traditional historiography in order to introduce women into history;

(4) For the revolution of the origin of women's history, the lack of official records can be made up by the records of population statistics, parishes, church educational institutions, police and courts, private letters and diaries.

(5) the challenge to the traditional historical stage, like the famous historian Joan? Did Kelly's woman revive? It is pointed out that the traditional historical staging is not suitable for female experience;

(6) The necessity of redefining classification and value;

(7) Request mode update. 10

The core theory of Canadian women's history is "patriarchy" Patriarchy is a rich concept to explain women's subordinate status, including a whole set of institutional order and system of society and family. As Richie pointed out, "Patriarchy is the power of the father. Patriarchy refers to an organic system of family-society, ideology and politics. In this system, men decide what role women should play through intense and direct oppression, or through rituals, traditions, laws, languages, customs, etiquette, education and division of labor, and at the same time put women under the control of men ... "11Add historical focus, elite women (including leaders of women's movements and various social movements, etc. ), coupled with the oppression and norms of patriarchy on women, and the "female domain" of daily life, body, pregnancy, abortion, childbirth, family interpersonal relationship, emotion, domestic violence, housework, friends, etc., was "private (personal) and politicized" by the feminist movement at that time. Some female historians even think that there is not only a unique "female culture" here, but also morally superior to men. Emphasizing oppression, looking for elite women and paying attention to the field of women are important characteristics of the history of female addition at that time.

In 1980s, gender became a useful category of historical analysis, which made gender history become the mainstream.

Since 1975 Gail? Rubin put forward the concept of sex/gender system in women's trade, trying to answer the root of women's universal oppression. She started with Marxist political economy, Levi? Combining Strauss's structural anthropology with Freud's psychoanalysis, we can see that gender system is not only spiritual and interpersonal, but also the product of political and economic system and history. It has been widely recognized by feminist academic circles and has been continuously developed and widely used in various disciplines and social movements. Joan, a post-structuralist historian? Joan WCott's famous article "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" published in 1988 further defines it. She thought: (1). "Gender is based on observed gender differences" and "part of many social relations"; (2) "Gender is a basic way to express power relations".

Scott's second definition of gender is summarized in theory-gender is a main way to represent power relations: not only the source and way of power formation, but also the way to maintain power. 12 Scott's view of gender is rooted in the relationship between men and women in western society, summarizes the experience of western women's history research, especially the experience of American women's history research, and the achievements of western feminism development, and even absorbs and integrates Marxist historical materialism on human social relations (including economic and political relations, gender is the division and organization of the two sexes). The structural theory of post-structuralism on "discourse" and "power" (Foucault) and the symbolism of psychoanalysis school (Lacan) integrate these schools' theories on gender, the core of which is to regard men and women as the historical generation of social power relations system norms rather than the creation of natural essence. This analysis is far more profound and comprehensive than that of patriarchy. It is not only the capitalist patriarchy and patriarchy in the family that control women, but also the power and tension formed by the social and cultural construction of a ubiquitous gender discourse are manifested everywhere. In addition, the concept of gender, as a dimension and perspective, is re-examined from the inherent special history, separating gender category from female existence, which greatly enriches the historical connotation. Trying to explain the overall root of women's situation and gender relationship structure from a historical perspective is the emergence of gender concept and its change as an important analytical category in history.

In the late 1980s, due to the wide application of gender in historical research, gender research became history. With the concept of "gender" being more and more widely used in history, women's history has been diluted by "gender-neutral discourse" in gender history. At that time, some people thought that since the isomorphism of the two sexes became history, women entered history, and it was enough to study gender only, so it was not necessary to highlight women in particular. Gila? Bao Ke's Women and Gender History: Many Aspects of an International Debate is the summary of this debate. This paper criticizes "biological determinism" and "gender-neutral discourse", and points out that women should not be abandoned when studying history with gender, "general history should be written in a gender-inclusive way" and "female history is an excellent gender history", which can be called "female-gender history". In other words, do all women have the same experience and situation? In the 1990s, the feminist theory represented by white people in the West was severely challenged by black people, colored people and third world feminism. Jeddah, where women's history was discovered, was put forward. Lerner once defined the history of women as "the majority group that discovered their past"? Are these women "mostly" monolithic? How to express the difference and diversity of women's identity and break the single category of "gender" analysis in the study of women's history has become the key issue in the study of women-gender history. In 1996, it was Scott who wrote an article, stressing the importance of studying the "differences" between women, challenging the epistemological expression of "essence comes before existence", and emphasizing that gender is not a single analytical category, and should be investigated and analyzed in combination with other identities and positions such as race, nationality, class, education, age and sexual orientation. Observing and analyzing the complexity of the perspective is to better observe the specific living state of "women", enhance the distinct subjectivity, and understand their own position interests and action strategies. 14

In the late 1990s, Susan Scott, a colleague and feminist literary critic? Friedman further put forward the proposition of "transcending gender". She believes that in the face of the wave of globalization, transnational migration and the endless flow of electronic information networks, the challenge of gender+difference social identity analysis method is that everyone's social identity, subject composition and its identity are not single and rigid, but diversified and mobile. Therefore, she used "Xinjiang Social Identity Definition" to contain this complicated and changeable new social theoretical concept about social identity and orientation, and included six related discourses of social identity-multiple oppression theory, multiple subjective status theory, contradictory subjective status theory, subjective social relations theory, subjective situation theory and heterogeneous mixed subjective theory. 15 theory has been responded and applied in literary criticism, cultural studies, historical studies and other disciplines.

At this point, we can see a clear thread of theoretical development, from the supplementary history of women to the gender history of paying attention to the relationship between men and women and the relationship between this relationship and other social, economic and cultural relations and even private life; At the same time, it also warns researchers that gender history is not to downplay the history of women, to focus on gender without women, or to talk about women as some scholars understand. Only by talking about women and men can we be objective and comprehensive. The history of gender is still centered on women, but it does not take gender as the only analytical category, that is, to get rid of the false universal and essentially unified "women", there can only be concrete, mobile and multi-social "women".

2. Methodological revolution: questioning "dualism" and moving towards interdisciplinary.

The dual mode of thinking has always been the fetter of epistemology and methodology that puzzles westerners. In gender discourse, it used to be a binary opposition between men and women. Since the creation of "sex" and "gender", the cultural construction method of structuralism, the pursuit of meaning and the decentralization of power. In fact, Scott is a feminist historian deeply influenced by post-structuralism. When she put forward gender as an effective category of historical analysis, she broke the traditional dualism about gender in the west, and especially emphasized discourse operation, context analysis and meaning mining. Judith, a post-structuralist philosopher? Butler pointed out that separating sex from social gender actually constructs a myth of "transcendental, natural and natural sex/body"; She traced this myth back to the saying that women in Bova became women. This unlimited social determinism presupposes the binary opposition of "biology/society, nature/civilization", but feminists want to enhance the values of nature, emotion and body, which is also a kind of biological determinism. Along this line of thought, Scott further pointed out the dilemma of this binary division in Further Thinking on Gender and Politics (1999). In fact, when gender is defined as social and cultural construction, all its natural connotations cannot be excluded; Similarly, when sex is defined as a natural and physiological scope, it is actually difficult to be divorced from cultural factors, let alone sexual desire (sexual concept, attitude, behavior, feelings, etc.). ), between sex and gender, is largely a cultural construction rather than a physiological factor. Sex and gender are both forms of knowledge. Since they are knowledge, "nature" is not transparent. Both of them are concepts with historical background and are expressed in language, and their meanings vary from time to time and from culture to culture. Therefore, we should change the angle of questioning and give historical significance to gender: (1) We should abandon the fixed view of men and women and the view of foreknowledge, and see how these words are used in specific contexts, what are the boundaries set between the two sexes and what differences are reflected? (2) Reveal the gap between the concept of regulating and guiding men's and women's behavior and the experience description of real people, and the relationship between gender identity and various powers. Seeing that the cultural model describing gender differences is inconsistent with social roles, we don't need simple concepts such as "progress" and "retrogression" to estimate the status of "women". The biggest enlightenment from these is that when thinking about women and gender issues, we must abandon the completely separated and antagonistic practices such as nature/culture, biology/society, public sphere/private sphere, oppression/liberation, progress/backwardness, and status. And we need to contextualize, contextualize and concretize women's status and gender relations, and we need a connected, comprehensive and changing way of thinking. 16

With the innovation of new concept category in theory, there is also a methodological revolution-the application of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in history. The new social history is an important driving force for the development of feminist historiography, and the intervention of cultural history has led to many breakthroughs. Women's history in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on the influence of the ideological trend of social history research in the 1960s and 1970s. The bottom-up writing of social history is consistent with the participation of disadvantaged women groups. Sociological, anthropological and demographic methods have been applied to the study of women's history, but men in the lower classes have been replaced by women's groups. The study of women's history in cultural history since 1990s is mainly based on two theories: one is the theory of literary criticism, the other is the anthropology of post-structuralism, which deconstructs universally applicable grand theories and methods (such as historical materialism and evolutionary history) and emphasizes the construction and analysis of situational discourse; Questioning the neutrality of language and writing, I think that any appearance will inevitably have positions and values infiltrated into it, so we should focus on the text interpretation and analysis of the collected historical materials. In terms of specific methods, first, pay attention to finding historical materials other than words, such as materials and oral materials; Second, we should pay attention to the interpretation of the text; Third, we should treat and dispose of the authenticity of materials-on the one hand, we don't recognize the transparency of history, on the other hand, we think it is possible and necessary to treat the authenticity after reducing the background of raw materials. In addition, another important revelation of cultural history is the issue of historical subjectivity. People in social history, women in women's history and cultural studies are all questioned. They believe that there are no universal "people" and "women", and there are no inherent "men" and "women", only those who are different, complicated and even mobile in various situations. These are enough to shake the deep-rooted historical tradition of positivism in China's historiography circle, which is still regarded as the golden rule and unshakable. Because "experience" is also the result of "subject" being "constructed" and language is not neutral, it is more difficult to find truth and law, which brings unprecedented challenges to historians.

As can be seen from the above introduction, the development of foreign women's history is closely related to the background of social thoughts (movements, such as feminist thoughts and movements) and academic development (such as new social history, "post-school", feminist academic development and interdisciplinary trends) at a specific time and place. From adding women's history to analyzing gender as an important contact observation category, and then investigating the cross-flow between different and ever-changing social identities, without losing the focus of women's investigation as gender identity, this historical vision and dimension is not only a new historical theory and category, but also a perspective for observing, analyzing and solving gender problems and a series of problems in the world today, and it is also a new growth point of academic development today. The study of women's history in the field of sinology has been rising since the mid-1970s, and it is still very weak, and it is in a marginal position in both academic mainstream and sinology. However, in recent years, the history of women in Sinology has become more and more fierce, occupying a decisive position in Asian studies and history. On the one hand, women historians of sinology absorb new theoretical achievements from the west, constantly carry out academic dialogues and use new theoretical methods under the academic background of the west; On the other hand, they are constantly wary of their own western center and Orientalism, showing great academic awareness and even challenging the dominant theories and assumptions of the West; At the same time, it also provides a useful direct reference for domestic historians in China to ignore and stagnate women's history because of long-term closure. According to the development process, it can be divided into two stages: 17.

1, post-70, post-80 s: accept the views of western sinology and feminism-mainly focus on modern and contemporary research, and the content is mostly revolution (fracture) and patriarchy (family and country). Some people experienced the disillusionment of "women's liberation" in their "ideal" and bounced back to the "double oppression" and passive "victims" of women in China (Du's marriage and family, the focus of traditional women's fields, especially the pre-modern women's history, also regarded women as a new variable in feminist analysis. As Su Jian said in his article, it belongs to an "old problem and new solution" and cannot be added. 18 patriarchy is also the core concept of this period. The oppression-liberation model shows that it is deeply influenced by Chen Dongyuan's works, while the anthropologist Majerie? The "womb family" put forward by Woolf's investigation of rural women in Taiwan Province-the power of mother is a shocking challenge to the traditional patriarchy, although it has some defects such as biological determinism and essentialism.

Gender as a gender analysis has changed old problems, new solutions and directions. As Mann said, "the purpose is not to prove whether women have expanded those fields, but to re-examine the social structure and the relationship between women and gender." 19

2. The challenge to western feminism and the vigilance against Orientalism in the 1990s went deep into the context of China, and what topics were changed (initiative and complexity see Gao and Susan? Mann's works), the expansion of the field (see Fei's works on medical history, and the works on science and technology, material economy, law and prostitutes, respectively, see He Xiao and others' works), the diversity of methods and materials (He Xiao-post-structuralist method, the combination of oral and text analysis), and the launch of a number of highly influential achievements in the international sinology community. 20

The comprehensive application of methods, multidisciplinary research, such as culture, economy, law, material production and circulation, and general culture, such as Gao's research on women's foot binding, not only considers social and cultural factors, but also involves the relationship between women and little shoes in terms of material culture, production, circulation and consumption. 2 1

Another outstanding research method is the opening of literature, history and philosophy. Literary materials, as the reappearance of men and women with specific identities in a specific era, are interpreted through careful text analysis, which greatly supplements the deficiency of female historical materials; In addition to words, there are paintings and images, which can also be regarded as historical materials to show women. Like Susan. Mann's Myth of Asian Women is a successful example of this pan-text interpretation. 22