This paper describes the results of two research projects, which were focused upon female students' historical understanding of feminism. In both cases the researchers found that the student participants harbored ambivalent or negative attitudes towards feminism and saw little connection between the present and feminist struggles in the past. While this attitude could be attributed to a wide range of variables, the authors illustrate that a focus upon the students' form of historical consciousness and theories of agency can explain the tendency to see a "gap" between past and present. This paper concludes with a call for further research into the interaction between historical thinking, historical consciousness, and theories of agency.