3. Putting the political in economy: African women’s and gender history, 1992–2010

This chapter examines multidisciplinary work on African women's and gender history between 1992 and 2010, calling this scholarship histoire engagée. After a brief overview of the development of African women's and gender history as well as African history's contributions to contemporary historical discourses, the chapter discusses the political economy of scholarly works on African women. It then analyzes Oyèrónké Oyěwùmí's argument, advanced in The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, that all “Western” women have a preset agenda in studying “African” women that is neocolonialist and irrelevant to “African” women. It also considers issues of gender identity, sexuality, and the politicizing of women's roles by focusing on women organizing, along with the place of religion in scholarship on African women's and gender history.