Dear Debbie

I am an archivist working in a gendered institution (The 
Fawcett Library).  I've just come back from my holidays and 
have just had to wade through half an hour of tedious and 
offensive guff and can only sympathise with your 
predicament.

Your question is a valid one.  I 
remember raising one very like it (specifically in 
connection with women/bias 
in cataloguing/women's official presence in the historical 
record) on my return from a large international conference 
of women's libraries, information centres and archives held 
at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, USA, in 
1994.  (There was another in Amsterdam in 1998)

Very few of the colleagues I approached in 1994 had any 
idea of what I was trying to express, in 
spite of my perception (like Len McDonald's) that archives 
was and is a profession where women did and DO flourish.  
The concept of gender bias in the historical 
record of the UK just didn't seem to exist at all, let 
alone in the archival profession.  At that time I didn't 
have the vocabulary to express my inchoate 
perceptions.

Over the last few years I've been following with interest 
the gender-based discussions coming out of the archival 
masters courses, and have tried to respond helpfully where 
I can, because there are very few self-confessed 
woman-centred archival repositories in the UK.

To answer your questions:
1 I do not think anybody within the profession has 
consciously and seriously considered the question, 
therefore one has to fall back on the prevalent 
androcentric societal attitudes i.e. archivists are 
unthinkingly perceived as male.  I do think though that 
archivists would consciously consider the profession as 
ungendered.

2 Because I do not think 
that archives have a high profile or are very much valued 
by society at large, women have been able to flourish - men 
working in the profession are generally genuinely 
interested rather than being motivated by gain or ambition.

3 I had hoped that the situation was silently changing 
towards the profession being consciously considered 
ungendered, as over the last few years I think there has 
been a general feminisation (or shifting of the gendered 
bias) of perceptions of historical worth (whatever that may 
mean but it has something to do with the emerging 
prominence of social, popular and family history).  

I am posting this response to the general list not to 
generate another flurry of defensive jokes, but because I 
do feel that the gendered bias of our common knowledge 
basis is a genuine issue within the profession.

Anna Greening
Archivist, The Fawcett Library
London Guildhall University
[log in to unmask] 




On Wed, 2 Aug 2000 13:32:23 +0100 [log in to unmask] wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> Hallo
> 
> I am currently working on a dissertation on the 
development of the archival > profession and to what extent 
it is gendered, as part of the MA course at > Liverpool. > 
> I would be very grateful to anybody who would be willing 
to spare a few minutes > to share their thoughts and 
experiences on this issue with me, e-mailing me > 
privately.  I am primarily interested in three main 
questions: > > 1.  Do archivists, and the public at large, 
consider the job of the archivist > and records manager to 
be a male or a female one, or do they not see it as > 
gendered? > > 2. What might the reasons for this be?
> > 3. Has this always been the case or has it altered over 
time? > > I would be especially interested to hear from 
male archivists with their > thoughts on the issue, and 
what attracted them to the job (or indeed discouraged > 
them from taking it up at any point!). > > I realise that 
requests like these are very frequent at this time of year, 
and > apologise for interrupting more serious questions 
that the list was intended to > discuss, but any thoughts 
would be gratefully received! > > Thank you in advance, > 
> Debbie O'Brien > (e-mail to [log in to unmask] or to 
this address). > > > 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anna Greening Archivist, The 
Fawcett Library London Guildhall 
University [log in to unmask] 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Bryt upp! bryt upp! den nya dagen gryr
Oaendligt aer vaart stora aeventyr ..." (Karin Boye)




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