Gender and other outstanding issues: is feminist librarianship possible?

This paper explores British librarianship from a third wave feminist position. It proposes that contemporary librarianship's nineteenth century re/construction was highly gendered and that this has had a significant impact on its theory and practice. The emergence of the public library as a quasi-domestic, female-controlled 'third space' at the same time through the influence of librarianship architects like Melvil Dewey allows the social construction of librarianship and the librarian to be fully observed. These sites provide an opportunity to focus on a familiar setting, work practice and occupational group that is often stereotyped and taken for granted, and little discussed from a gender-aware perspective. I suggest that his has continued to inhibit librarians and potential. Challenges made by women librarians inspired by specifically second wave feminism are described to indicate the constraints of librarianship revealed if gendered understandings are applied, as are the efforts of women from other situated contexts. The paper goes on to suggest that women's libraries and archives, developed through twentieth-century feminisms and often outside mainstream and official librarianship structures, may offer alternative models of librarianship and feminist space. Reflections are made on three British women's libraries that represent subsequent feminist waves to discover whether they offer insights into the gendered nature of librarianship and its status as a female-dominated profession or perhaps herald the potential of new forms derived from feminist understandings. Before further discussion, I briefly reflect on the experiences that led to the development of these ideas and then position librarianship as currently in flux and open to a range of complex internal and external influences.