Guides: Women's & Gender Studies Research Guide: Statistics & Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary sources are sources that allow researchers to get as close as possible to what happened during a historical time or event.

For more help with primary sources see How to Find Primary Resources.

Gender: Identity and Social Change
Primary sources documenting the changing representations of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Collection of letters and diaries that present the personal experiences of hundreds of women from Colonial times to 1950. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
Dates Covered: 1675-1950.
Women and Social Movements, International: 1840-Present
Writings of women activists, personal letters and diaries, and conference proceedings related to international women's organizations and social movements.
Women and Social Movements in the United States
Primary sources and documents focusing on the history of women in social movements in the U.S.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender
Part III: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries contains over 5,000 monographs which examine patterns of fertility and sexual practice, prostitution, religion and sexuality, the medical and legal construction of sexualities, the rise of sexology, and more. Part IV: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture includes manuscripts, periodicals and other ephemera, dating from the 1820s, with the bulk of the material between 1970–2016.

Gender Data Portal
The Gender Data Portal is the World Bank Group’s comprehensive source for the latest sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics covering demography, education, health, access to economic opportunities, public life and decision-making, and agency.
UNECE Gender Statistics
Gender Statistics for Europe and North American from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

OECD Data Explorer
Allows users to search for and extract data from across OECD's many databases including data previously available on OECD Stat.
Demographic and Health Surveys
Collects data to monitor and evaluate population, health and nutrition programs. Surveys provide information on family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, HIV/AIDS/sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and reproductive health.