Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe

New Approaches to European History #1

by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks

This is a major new edition of a stimulating and authoritative book. Merry Wiesner has updated and expanded her prize-winning study; she has added new sections on topics such as sexuality, masculinity, the impact of colonialism, and women's role as consumers. Other themes investigated include the female life cycle, literacy, women's economic role, artistic creation, female piety--and witchcraft--and the relationship between gender and power. Accessible, engrossing, and lively, this book will be of central importance for those interested in gender history, early modern Europe, and comparative history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Gender, European History, Womens, Gender Studies

325 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 1993

About the author

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) taught first at Augustana College in Illinois, and since 1985 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is currently UWM Distinguished Professor in the department of history. She is the coeditor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of more than twenty books, most recently The Marvelous Hairy Girls: The Gonzales Sisters and Their Worlds and Gender in History. She is the former Chief Reader for Advanced Placement World History.

Reviews

[Zarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read such a dense and enlightening textbook cover to cover. Wiesner-Hanks did a great job of making her academic survey easy to read, given the content could be kind of dry. I don’t know enough about the early modern period to argue whether it was exhaustive, but the book covered basically every facet of the public and private sphere in relation to women: informal and recognized power, class, religion, the creation of culture, prostitution, the legal system, proto-industrialization, etc. I was surprised by a lot of what I read, and I think this is because I never thought the treatment of half of a population could ever be “that bad”. But as it turns out, men were like, somehow even more petty in the early modern period, which is illustrated by this weird passage in the "Gender and Power” chapter (p. 292):

[Scientists] regarded nature as the best source of examples for appropriate political structures, which they termed “natural”. When the invention of the microscope made it clear the king bee was a queen, both royal propagandists and scientists tried to downplay her sex as long as possible, embarrassed that nature would provide such a demonstration of “unnatural” female power.

ie. the same people who argued that science is a rational study devoid of politics and religion were also upset about discovering that God gave insects a main bitch and they do just fine.

And personally, as a Woman of Reason, I have never been fully convinced that “men" are people, and no one has ever shown me conclusive evidence of the aforementioned “fact”. At worst they are inherent wrongdoers, their destructive nature being wholly similar to the weak-hearted ineptitude of Adam, who could not follow the one rule he was given by his Creator due to simple words spoken by a Woman who did not force his hand to the forbidden fruit. At best they are mere assets in procreation, and serve only as an instrument used by Women to perpetuate human life and encourage political continuity. There are several rebuttals to this thesis, primarily concerning male contributions to the sciences and the development of the public sphere. Our male adversaries make these fragile claims perhaps to indicate to all rational citizens that there exists a lesser sex, for as Women and, by extension, the sole logical beings to walk the Earth, it is easy to argue that God obviously endowed “men” with some incidental talents for the purpose of keeping idle hands too busy to do Satan’s work. It is a happy accident that at times they excelled at their respective crafts.

If you are upset you can just switch around the genders in the above paragraph and this is basically the viewpoint of every man (and a lot of women) in the early modern period. Given the economic, legal, and political power men had at the time, it was also interesting to read that “historians noted that men often seemed uncertain about what was expected of them…masculinity was in “crisis” because of various types of social, political, and economic changes. The early modern period was one of these times of crisis, in which men were “anxious” about their masculinity…” Four hundred years later and the idea of "masculinity in crisis" sounds awfully familiar…

Anyways, this was a great book, I learned a lot, and I’m kind of sad I had to seek out this information for myself.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really intriguing read. Wiesner analyzes the details of various aspects of female life in Early Modern Europe, comparing and contrasting the lives led by Catholic women versus Protestant, lower class versus higher, English versus French or Spanish... the list goes on. She also looks at the remnants of medieval culture and belief and how these affected women living in the Early Modern world. Very detailed, and yet written in an easily-comprehensible writing style.

[Philipp Moeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and at times surprising overview of the role of women in early modernity. Especially the book's emphasis that women's rights were always debated and that no consensus was universal added greatly to my understanding of the heterogeneity of women's experiences at the time. While this is very likely due to the broad topic and the textbook genre, Wiesner's work sometimes feels slightly unfocused, skipping through centuries of development in a few sentences. That being said, this wide temporal frame also helps to get a broad sense of the issue at hand.

[Patricia Macías García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reseña cutre porque estoy de exámenes:

Lo cogí para un trabajo sobre la mujer en la Edad Moderna y he aprendido tela de mucho. Habría sacado todo de aquí si hubiera podido, en serio. Pero claro, tener solo una referencia en un trabajo de la uni pues no queda bien. Aun así, este libro es como la BIBLIA. En fin, que lo he sacado de la biblio, pero me lo voy a comprar porque quiero tenerlo en casa para consultarlo cuando me dé la gana y eso.

[Arianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

ho dovuto leggerlo per un esame universitario, e per questo motivo un po' mi pesava all'inizio, ma in realtà ho presto scoperto che si trattava di un libro scritto molto bene e molto interessante sotto diversi aspetti, che ti apre gli occhi sulla questione delle discriminazioni di genere - in particolare dell'età moderna - ma anche del mondo di oggi.
non gli do 5 stelle perchè a tratti era un po' prolisso, però 4 stelle se le merita tutte.

[Angelo Agosti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bello, sintetico e potente: un saggio che riesce a riassumere in pochissime battute vari aspetti della vita della popolazione femminile nell'età moderna. Unica pecca l'edizione: caratteri troppo piccoli e poco maneggevoli per una lettura prolungata.

Per il resto saggio consigliato.

[Zach McSwain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merry Wiesner-Hanks provides an in-depth and gripping examination of women in Europe's early modern period. The book is subdivided into three major sections: body, mind, and spirit. Each section details specific aspects of women's lives in the era, and the choice to organize the book in such a manner is clearly beneficial. Wiesner-Hanks is not difficult to read or parse; presenting her research in a clear manner. This book will give readers a good survey of gender studies in the given period and should be considered alongside a more general survey.

[Helene Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review - This book was a godsend for my University modules on women and gender - Wiesner-Hanks writes really well, and introduces a lot of primary source material which is analysed and discussed. The book includes sections on religion, witchcraft, literacy, culture and power. It is an excellent introduction to women and gender in the early modern period, and points to some interesting resources.

General Subject/s? - History / Gender / Women

Recommend? – Yes

Rating - 17/20

[Leila]

Had to read for a class and was supposed to do the Italian copy but did indeed end up cramming for the exam, and it would take me less time to read the book in English. Bada-bing bada-boom-- I read the book in English. Pretty standard historical non-fiction fare, decently well written, semi-interesting.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, succinct and comprehensive overview of early modern women and gender perfect for undergraduate students. Thematic organization makes for interesting comparisons across time and place. Website supplying primary sources and additional readings invaluable.

[•Asia• · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5🌟
A ritroso mi sono rimasti ben impressi gli argomenti trattati dall'autrice, già di mio interesse.
Ciò su cui ho da ridire é lo stile, troppo ripetitivo (letteralmente) e prolisso, a volte, senza motivo.

[Eleonora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ottimo manuale per scrivere la mia tesi di laurea! Credo però ci siano degli errori nelle parti riguardanti la omosessualità femminile.

[Laura Derbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally purchased to read alongside a university module I was doing, it ended up being a constant source of inspiration and fact-finding and helped with many an essay.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

kind of slaps for a textbook, not gonna lie

[Thorunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mjög áhugaverð, vel skrifuð, fullt af tilvitnunum í raunverulegar konur - ég vissi ekki að það væri til svona mikið af skrifuðum heimildum eftir konur!

[Silvia Sorrentino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un ottimo lavoro di ricerca che ricostruisce la storia moderna europea di quella metà di popolazione cacciata via dai libri di storia standard: le donne.

[Bram Pieterse · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[DS25 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Premesse interessanti, ma esecuzione a lista prendendo in esame 3/4 figure fondamentali e lasciando il lavoro al lettore. Complessivamente poco interessante.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissimo. Ha completamente cambiato la mia percezione sul passato. Alcune teorie sul genere femminile sono talmente assurde da risultare comiche.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative but she’s a chore to read

[sophie ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for a 'women in history' class and while it was course material, it was nicely detailed and interesting to read about

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

merry weisner-hanks is such an icon - the queen of o5!!!!!!!!

[Mattia Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Da una visione completa del lavoro delle donne in quel periodo storico. A volte un po' prolisso

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5☆

[Baylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leggendo questo libro, tutto ciò a cui riuscivo a pensare era: meno male che sono nata nell'Italia di fine Novecento. Se fossi nata nei secoli presi in considerazione del libro (che analizza la storia dal punto di vista della condizione della donna tra il 1500 e il 1750), sarei stata considerata un essere inferiore che doveva essere naturalmente sottomessa ad un uomo.

Grazie al credito di cui godeva quel simpaticone di Aristotele, si era giunti a una teorizzazione dell'inferiorità psicofisica della donna. Se poi ci aggiungiamo anche il frutto proibito ed Eva... otteniamo una mela più avvelenata di quella che la Strega diede a Biancaneve.

Ma pensate se qualcuno di questi signori tornasse a farsi un giretto dalle nostre parti... Certo, non è che essere donna, anche oggi, sia rose e fiori – e non sto qui a elencarne i motivi più o meno gravi. Ma sapere da dove siamo partiti può aiutarci a cambiare idee e comportamenti che ancora oggi circolano tra di noi (anche tra alcune donne, ahimè!).

[G.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A seriously good undergraduate textbook: accessibly written and with a useful number of quotations from primary sources. The suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter are also mines of information. I decided to read this because I'll be teaching a course in early modern Japanese women's writing this spring and I wanted to be able to bring a comparative dimension to the classroom: the book was perfect for that purpose, too!

One caveat: the companion website (www.cambridge.org/womenandgender) doesn't work in Japan. Frustratingly, one is taken instead to the CUP English-teaching website.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most spectacular books I've ever been assigned for school. Great overview of subjects pertaining to women and gender in . . . early modern Europe! Really though, well worth the read and includes such an extensive bibliography that if I read only books referenced in this one, I'd probably be busy for the rest of my life. I'm going to buy my own copy. Just superb.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' stata una vera angoscia finire il capitolo sulla Religione - troppe digressioni e particolari inutili per quella che dovrebbe essere una panoramica.
A parte questo, il libro e' assolutamente valido e interessantissimo. A tratti pure divertente.

[Mary Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, I used it a lot during my Patriarchy, Sex, and Gender in Early Modern Europe course. Wiesner-Hanks is nothing short of astounding with the way she relates the nuances of gender and the feminine experience in this historical period, highly recommended.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A survey of women and gender from about 1500-1800 in European society, including "New World" colonies. Superb breadth, depth, and clarity; a model of its genre.