2025/07/09 by Karel Van Nieuwenhuyse, Balázs Sipos, Lies Depickere +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy #Historical Education Studies Worldwide #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.14324/herj.22.1.17
openalex publication_date 2025/07/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
This article analyses the historical representations of women, as individuals and as groups, in the past (from 1750 to the present) in currently (2023) used secondary school history textbooks in Hungary and Flanders. This international comparative perspective has been chosen as both countries, at least partly, share a common history and present. At the same time, there are also differences to be discerned, such as the liberal tradition versus post-socialism in society at large. Two main research questions guide the analysis. The first one is how women in the past are represented in chapters about the Hungarian and (pre-)Belgian national past, and about the past in general, since 1750. Specific attention is paid to the representation of the three consecutive waves of feminism. The second research question concerns the presence or absence of underlying patterns in the history textbook accounts with regard to the representation of women’s position and role in the past. For instance, do textbooks take a gender perspective, or rather give the impression of having added some women’s history to an existing storyline? The analysis is based on current history textbooks being used in Grades 10, 11 and 12 of secondary school history education. The analysis draws mostly on a qualitative content analysis. Results show similarities (for example, few mentions of women as individuals and as groups; close alliance to popular historical culture, not to academic historiography) as well as differences (in terms of recognising the importance of including women in textbook accounts of the past, and underlying storylines).