Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages

by Mary C. Erler

Gendering the Master Narrative asks whether a female tradition of power might have existed distinct from the male one, and how such a tradition might have been transmitted. It describes women's progress toward power as a push-pull movement, showing how practices and institutions that ostensibly enabled women in the Middle Ages could sometimes erode their authority as well. This book provides a much-needed theoretical and historical reassessment of medieval women's power. It updates the conclusions from the editors' essential volume on that topic, Women and Power in the Middle Ages, which was published in 1988 and altered the prevailing view of female subservience by correcting the nearly ubiquitous equation of "power" with "public authority." Most scholars now accept a broader definition of power based on the interactions between men and women. In their Introduction, Mary C. Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski survey the directions in which the study of medieval women's agency has developed in the past fifteen years. Like its predecessor, this volume is richly interdisciplinary. It contains essays by highly regarded scholars of history, literature, and art history, and features seventeen black-and-white illustrations and two maps.

Genres: History, Feminism, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2003

About the author

Mary Carpenter Erler

Reviews

[Squirrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book written by academics for academics; you're expected to already know the history going in. It's not insurmountable with some Wikipedia reading to supplement it, but this is not designed for people without some grounding in historical methodology to pick up. The result is a dense read that hints at a much broader body of knowledge.
As with all anthologies, this collection of articles by medievalists varies in quality. I found some more than others brought convincing evidence of the premise that medieval women had some power/agency and were able to use it. I think that the essays in the collection point to something similar but just as interesting: as the Middle Ages went on, systems were created to deliberately curb the power women had amassed. As in, thanks to changes in inheritance law widows received less. The Reformation churches were deliberately bare in part to limit local women's fundraising for decorations of favored saints in the church. The confessional box was created to make sure women confessing didn't get too intimate with their confessors. Etc.
All in all the book gave me a better understanding of the everyday life in medieval England, from how land leasing functioned to how guilds unified people. I definitely found works by Dyan Elliot, Katherine L. French, and Felicity Riddy to add to my reading list.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not half-bad, but also not as good as I was hoping. Although the article on Venetian dogaresse is very excellent, as is the one about building a sense of home and women’s roles in that.

[Denise Kettering · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays hits on a variety of different aspects of medieval life, including piety and devotion, home and family life, public rituals, literary works, and even the built environment. As such, different persons will probably find value in different essays. I enjoyed about half of the essays in the book and found them interesting and worth reading. This is an interesting selection of essays that asks some valuable questions from a variety of directions.

[Janin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although there were nuggets of interesting information hidden within the pages of this book-- it was a task to find them. It is NOT written for the average reader/ layperson. To be honest, I'm pretty sure it was aimed at informing colleagues who have already read the works referenced.