ABSTRACT
Critical to the formation of the new scientific history and, it should be added, to the new social sciences emerging as disciplines in the second half of the nineteenth century was the predominance of the Victorian ideology of separate spheres. The gap between ideology and reality has become increasingly clear to gender-conscious historians. The ideology of separate spheres, which continued to shape the conceptualization of the discipline of history at a fundamental level, continued to leave its mark upon its women practitioners as well. The women historians presenting papers in 1973 were generally at the rank of assistant professor or below in the profession. They went on to develop their early work into book-length publications and to be numbered among the path breaking historians of contemporary women's history. An appreciation of the material, spiritual, and psychological cultures women have created began to emerge with a better understanding of women's lives.
