Gendering european seaports in the first global age, 1500–1800: the portuguese case

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 2025

Authors

Polónia, Amélia (Author) FLUP

Book

Title: The Routledge history of the modern maritime world since 1500

ISBN: 9781138961135

Electronic ISBN: 9781003606918

Publisher: Routledge e Taylor & Francis

Other information

Abstract (EN): European maritime expansion is mostly, if not exclusively, perceived in the masculine as if the cast of this play consisted only of heroes, soldiers, captains, pilots, or sailors. Focusing on the performance of women in this world of men has been a historiographical counter-current for the last decades. Therefore, this chapter seeks to recover for historical analysis, within the scope of maritime history, agents and dynamics that have gone unnoticed or have been intentionally avoided by an ideological agenda with political purposes, in particular, the Portuguese Estado Novo (the Salazar regime). Pursuing historiographical trends opened by gender history, but also by a post-colonial agenda, this contribution will focus on women’s status and contributions in European seaports in the First Global Age (1500–1800) by focusing on the interactions between European overseas maritime expansion and the universe of women. Opposed to the direction of a traditionally male-driven interpretation, the chapter will look on the one hand at the effects of the absence of males in maritime societies due to transoceanic trade and navigation, and on the other hand at the revision and increase of female roles in maritime societies, in the world of work, economy, and society in general, by focusing on the Portuguese case. A European comparative perspective will be called to this analysis.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 19