Forgotten wives: how women get written out of history

Abstract

Throughout history, records of high-achieving women have been lost through the pervasive assumption of male dominance. Independently-performing women disappear as supporters of their husbands' work, as unpaid and often unacknowledged secretaries and research assistants, and as managers of men's domestic domains; even intellectual collaboration tends to be portrayed as normative wifely behaviour rather than as joint work. 'Forgotten Wives' examines the ways in which the institution and status of marriage has contributed to the active 'disremembering' of women's achievements. Ann Oakley interrogates conventions of history and biography writing using the case-studies of four women married to well-known men - Charlotte Shaw (née Payne-Townshend) , Mary Booth (née Macaulay), Jeannette Tawney (née Beveridge) and Janet Beveridge (known previously as Jessy Mair).