Gretchen Ritter

Silver Slippers and a Golden Cap: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Historical Memory in American Politics

L. Frank Baums The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an instant success when it was published in 1900. Baums quirky and imaginative tale of the girl from Kansas and her friends was complemented by W. W. Denslows accomplished illustrations to produce the best-selling childrens story of the 1900 Christmas season. After years of failed endeavors, the book brought Frank Baum personal prosperity. It also launched a long-lived and highly successful series of childrens books based on the Oz theme. There were theatrical and cinematic productions as well, the most famous of which was MGMs 1939 film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. Indeed, the film eventually came to displace the original Oz tale as the work to which imitators referred. But the books, and especially the first book, continue to have a popular presence among lovers of Oz.

Gender and Politics over Time

What can be learned from the broad sweep of history about gender and politics? Are there ways to study gender politics from a more historical perspective that differ from the methods and approaches typically taken by scholars focused on the contemporary political record? Finally, does attentiveness to gender politics over time challenge any of our basic understandings or presumptions about gender politics today, and does it lead us to new questions and research agendas? I begin by exploring the contribution that scholarship within the field of American political development (APD) can make to the study of gender politics over time. The essay then turns to conceptualizing gender, a concept that is defined in a wide variety of ways across the humanities and social sciences. The third section applies some of the conceptual approaches described in the first two parts of this essay to an analysis of three cases in American political history. Finally, I conclude with a call for the inclusion of gender more broadly in the study of politics.

The State of Gender Studies in Political Science

What effect has the study of gender had on political science? Compared to other branches of the social sciences, political science has been among the most resistant to feminist analysis. Political science scholarship generally is divided into four main subfields: political theory, American politics, comparative politics, and international relations. There are great disparities between these areas in the types and amount of gender scholarship that has been done. While feminist theory has become an accepted part of political theory, it has had a more limited impact in the other areas. Furthermore, where gender scholarship has appeared, it is often guided by intellectually conservative epistemological and methodological assumptions. Focusing on current major themes and significant works in the discipline, this article explores the differences in gender scholarship between subfields.