ABSTRACT
O ver the past two decades fem inist historians have begun to m ake critical in terventions in to one o f the m ost m ale-dom inated areas o f historical scholarship: the history o f im perialism . T h e ir challenge to the gender-b lind parad igm s o f im perial history has no t been a straigh tforw ard process, however: it has involved disagreem ents am ong fem inist historians th em selves, as they have engaged in b ro ad e r political an d scholarly debates. In the first place, fem inist historians have becom e engaged in contests over the w riting o f histories o f im perialism betw een the ‘old school5 o f W esternbased im perial historians, T h ird W orld scholars w riting from an an ti colonial nationalist perspective an d post-colonial theorists seeking to analyse an d underm ine im perialist form s o f know ledge an d pow er. Sec ondly, they have partic ipa ted in, an d been affected by, black and T h ird W orld w om en 's critiques o f W estern fem inism as an ‘im peria l fem in ism 5 w hich takes w hite, m iddle-class, W estern w om en 's experiences as the norm , viewing all w om en ‘th rough W estern eyes' an d failing to respect the ir differences or take accoun t o f inequalities in pow er shaped by racism an d im peria lism .1 T hese scholarly an d political debates have taken place in the context o f continu ing inequalities in access to resources for research ing an d represen ting the past: inequalities w hich are them selves one o f the legacies o f im perialism .
