University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Biographical Reference Works for and about Women, from the Advent of the Women's Liberation Movement to the Present: An Exploratory Analysis.

Searing, Susan E.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/3534

Description

Title
Biographical Reference Works for and about Women, from the Advent of the Women's Liberation Movement to the Present: An Exploratory Analysis.
Author(s)
Searing, Susan E.
Issue Date
2007
Keyword(s)
  • Biography
  • Reference works
  • Women
  • Women's studies
  • Biographical dictionaries
Abstract
Hundreds of English-language biographical reference books devoted to women subjects were published between 1966 and 2006. These works compensated for underrepresentation of women in standard sources and responded to the intense interest in women’s lives on the part of feminist scholars. The findings in this article are derived from a bibliographic database that includes works limited by nationality, race, occupation, and other factors, as well as general biographical dictionaries. A decade-by-decade analysis reveals trends in subject content that parallel developments in the scholarly field of women’s studies and the public arena. Problems with duplicative content, subjectivity, and factual errors are described, and points for evaluation are recommended. As biographical information about women is increasingly available on the open Web, questions remain about the nature and future of this type of information source.
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3534
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2007, The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois

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