ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the developing field of Feminist Legal History as a case study of what a Subversive Legal History can achieve. Drawing upon the developing field of Feminist Legal History, it asks how a focus on gender can subvert conventional historical-legal understandings. It suggests that subverting Legal History on the basis of gender can enable three important ‘disturbances’ to occur. The first is a disturbance in the narrative. A feminist approach can reveal the missing ‘stories’ that have been made invisible. Focusing on the question of power complicates linear accounts of progression and rewrites conventional accounts to emphasise the agency of disadvantaged individuals both in terms of campaigning for reform and also in using use law strategically. The second is a disturbance in the sources. By utilising a much wider range of primary and secondary materials it can be insisted that law cannot be understood in isolation. The third is a disturbance of disciplinary identities. In exposing the architecture of law as an academic field and of the sub-divisions made within law, a feminist approach scrutinises the construction of fields of knowledge, including processes of inclusion and exclusion, assumptions made, the authority given to certain voices and the importance afforded to particular topics and arguments.
