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Women in Medieval Europe: 1200-1500
Women in Medieval Europe were expected to be submissive, but such a broad picture ignores great areas of female experience. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, women are found in the workplace as well as the home, and some women were numbered among the key rulers, saints and mystics of the medieval world. Opportunities and activities changed over time, and by 1500 the world of work was becoming increasingly restricted for women.
Women of all social groups were primarily engaged with their families, looking after husband and children, and running the household. Patterns of work varied geographically. In the northern towns, women engaged in a wide range of crafts, with a small number becoming entrepreneurs. Many of the poor made a living as servants and labourers. Prostitution flourished in many medieval towns. Some women turned to the religious life, and here opportunities burgeoned in the thirteenth century. The Middle Ages are not remote from the twenty-first century; the lives of medieval women evoke a response today. The medieval mother faced similar problems to her modern counterpart. The sheer variety of women's experience in the later Middle Ages is fully brought out in this book.
Women of all social groups were primarily engaged with their families, looking after husband and children, and running the household. Patterns of work varied geographically. In the northern towns, women engaged in a wide range of crafts, with a small number becoming entrepreneurs. Many of the poor made a living as servants and labourers. Prostitution flourished in many medieval towns. Some women turned to the religious life, and here opportunities burgeoned in the thirteenth century. The Middle Ages are not remote from the twenty-first century; the lives of medieval women evoke a response today. The medieval mother faced similar problems to her modern counterpart. The sheer variety of women's experience in the later Middle Ages is fully brought out in this book.
330 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 21, 2019
At first, I was very disappointed with this book. It took a really long time to get used to the writing style. Ward writes in a very academic, top-heavy style that is difficult to follow if you haven't been trained to look for the structure. Additionally, this book is really confusing to read, as it skips across each community in Europe and through a span of 300 years, without clear delineation of when and where we're talking about at any given point.
About a third of the way through the book I realized that I've been looking at this book all wrong. If you want to read a detailed account of life in 1400 Spain, then go find a book about that. This book provides an overview of the lives of half the population across all of western Europe during the course of 300 years. Of course it isn't detailed. Ward provides a general overview, with a sprinkling of anecdotes about specific women. This is a primer for more specific research. If you look at this as a hint of the direction that your research could take you, it's an excellent way to jump in to a huge body of research.
My only other criticism of this book is that it completely ignores any sort of diversity - there's no race, there's only one church, and there is definitely no deviation from a cisgender heterosexual frame. I suppose that this could be due to the generalized nature of the book - but it's still disappointing to see the same old frame repeated in yet another history book.
About a third of the way through the book I realized that I've been looking at this book all wrong. If you want to read a detailed account of life in 1400 Spain, then go find a book about that. This book provides an overview of the lives of half the population across all of western Europe during the course of 300 years. Of course it isn't detailed. Ward provides a general overview, with a sprinkling of anecdotes about specific women. This is a primer for more specific research. If you look at this as a hint of the direction that your research could take you, it's an excellent way to jump in to a huge body of research.
My only other criticism of this book is that it completely ignores any sort of diversity - there's no race, there's only one church, and there is definitely no deviation from a cisgender heterosexual frame. I suppose that this could be due to the generalized nature of the book - but it's still disappointing to see the same old frame repeated in yet another history book.
January 23, 2022
A decent read on the subject but could be a bit more detailed in several areas.
November 15, 2016
A pretty decent overview of women's history of the Middle Ages with due consideration of different religious groups, classes, geographic areas, and century differences. Well constructed and organized, though sometimes the argument is a bit rudimentary and absolutist.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews