Aperçus sur les développements récents de l’histoire des femmes et du genre à l’époque moderne

Since the 2000s historical studies of women in the modern period have developed so considerably that it is difficult to draw up an exhaustive historiographical inventory. In order to give an account of the dynamics of this abundant research, which is contributing to the writing of a mixed history of society during the Ancien Régime, and to question the exceptional character of some women's lives, there are three emerging fields of research which focus on France, widened to include its overseas territories: the knowledge and the practices involved in creation; the worlds of work; the history of migrations and colonisation. These are all good observatories for understanding how the histories of women and gender have evolved by integrating questions or notions originally found in other specialised areas in the history domain, and conversely, how other, older fields of research drive forward their own aims and themes when they take into consideration the contributions made by histories of women and gender. So, as documentary, thematic and heuristic approaches are redefining themselves in this dual movement, it is our understanding of social order under the Ancien Régime which is becoming more complexed and enriched