but also to redirect two decades of historiographical debate as to whether women gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as compared with the eighteenth century.
redirect - to use something for a different purpose e.g. She was good at redirecting the children's energy into something useful. (from Longman 5th)
here, the main structure should be: ... to redirect / two decades of ... debate / (as to whether women VERB in ... century (as compared with another century)).