Abstract/Summary

This introductory essay to The Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing aims to make a theoretical intervention in the re-energised field of feminist book and publishing studies, exploring the varied roles of 'women in publishing' in the long twentieth century. Sections address the legacy of publishing as a 'gentleman's profession' and the structural inequalities embedded within the trade, alongside how feminist methods in book and publishing studies are aiming to redress this. We explore how different methodologies are needed to read (or create) feminist archives against the grain, and the significance of oral history and 'grey literature' in enabling scholars to tell new stories about the varied women who have worked in publishing, printing and bookselling over the last century.