Gender Regimes in History: Introduction

In the field of history, the concept of “gender regimes” has occasionally been applied and critically debated, but without much consistency. The term has rarely been linked to or based on gender regime theory as discussed in the field of sociology. Equally rare are historical master narratives that rely on the change of gender regimes as a major thread. In contrast, the field of sociology theorizes patterns of gender relations and gender inequality as gender regimes, and has linked their change over time to macro developments such as the rise of modernity, democracy, capitalism, and colonialism. How does a focus on gender regimes change and enrich historical metanarratives and periodizations? And conversely, how might historical research drive new developments in the sociological theory of gender regimes?