ABSTRACT
The striking fact about the historiography of women is the general neglect of the subject by historians. Gerda Lerner's consciousness of the absence of women from writings on history, and from academia and her preparedness to express this awareness made her one of the first voices to be heard in what was to become a fast growing and dynamic discipline. In New Approaches to the Study of Women in American History, Lerner looked briefly at nineteenth-century writings on the history of women which she understood as informed by 'the feminist viewpoint', and placed them in categories: one such was the search for and celebration of women's contribution, and another narratives of the women's movement. The use of insights provided by psychoanalysis would be a strong, if narrow thread in the writing of the history of women over the ensuing quarter-century. In the mid-seventies women's history was an open and liberating field of endeavour.
