Gender and Memory is the fourth volume of the International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories. Once again, its theme is a fundamental issue, the shaping of memory by gender. Are the different ways in which men and women are recalled in public and private memory, and also the differences in men's and women's own memories of similar experiences, simply reflections of unequal lives in gendered societies, or are they more deeply rooted? How
early in childhood do girls and boys reveal differences in memory? How far does the character of memory change as gender roles evolve? The Special Editors of Gender and Memory, Selma Leydesdorff, Luisa Passerini, and Paul
Thompson, draw on original contributions reflecting on the relationships between gender and memory in western and eastern Europe, China, Africa, Australia, the United States and Brazil. The aim of the International Yearbook is to increase our understanding of the recent past and the changing present. It sets out to present and interpret autobiographical testimony, whether in the firm of written autobiography, oral history, or life story interviews. Each issue forms a
coherent volume focusing on a single theme. The three previous volumes are Memory and Totalitarianism (volume one 1992; special editor Luisa Passerini); Between Generations: Family Models, Myths and Memories (volume
two, 1993; special editors Daniel Bertaux and paul Thompson), and Migration and Identity) volume 3 1994; special editors Rina Benmayor and Andor Skotnes). Edited by an international group of leading scholars, the Yearbook is genuinely interdisciplinary and intellectually stimulating. It will appeal to students in many areas, including, history, sociology, literature, physchology and anthropology.