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'Gender history', like any other means of historical analysis, is not a neutral scientific instrument. Rather, gender history as a way of analyzing history is a lens that “reflect[s] and replicate[s] our own understandings of the world”. As such, gender historians must be careful to limit the extent to which their understanding of their own culture and time period's genders colors their understanding of diverse, historical genders. (Nick Thodal)
'History of masculinity' as a field has its roots in histories of gender more broadly, which was a field born to address the sidelining of women's experiences in the histories. The first gender historians argued that femininities fundamentally shaped the lived experiences of women, which led later scholars to conclude that masculinities must shape the lived experiences of men to a similar extent. (Nick Thodal)