Gender and Prestige in Household Archaeology: Publication and Citation Trends, 1990–2019

Abstract Feminist and gender-focused archaeology have advanced our field, but this research is marginalized rather than integrated into broader analyses of societies. To address this situation, I analyzed publication content and related equity issues. I reviewed major archaeology journals to see how participation in and citation of household archaeology changed from 1990 to 2019. Since 2000, interest in gender has held steady, with about half of household archaeology articles mentioning gender, women, or children. Gender is most prevalent in historical archaeology. Meanwhile, feminism is rarely mentioned. When women publish on household archaeology, their work is as highly cited as men’s. In terms of citation counts, neither men nor women are punished for focusing on gender. I hope these data encourage archaeologists to submit articles addressing gender to high-impact journals. To more fully integrate gender into our field, US-based archaeologists could address underrepresentation of women authors in journals, reluctance to engage with politics and activism, privileging of quantitative data, academic hiring, and strategic uses of different kinds of journals.