Women in Medieval Society

Women in Medieval Society PDF Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 081220767X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Early medieval women exercised public roles, rights, and responsibilities. Women contributed through their labor to the welfare of the community. Women played an important part in public affairs. They practiced birth control through abortion and infanticide. Women committed crimes and were indicted. They owned property and administered estates. The drive toward economic growth and expansion abroad rested on the capacity of women to staff and manage economic endeavors at home. In the later Middle Ages, the social position of women altered significantly, and the reasons why the role of women in society tended to become more restrictive are examined in these essays.

Women in Medieval Society

Women in Medieval Society PDF Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 081220767X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
Early medieval women exercised public roles, rights, and responsibilities. Women contributed through their labor to the welfare of the community. Women played an important part in public affairs. They practiced birth control through abortion and infanticide. Women committed crimes and were indicted. They owned property and administered estates. The drive toward economic growth and expansion abroad rested on the capacity of women to staff and manage economic endeavors at home. In the later Middle Ages, the social position of women altered significantly, and the reasons why the role of women in society tended to become more restrictive are examined in these essays.

Women in Medieval Times

Women in Medieval Times PDF Author: Fiona Macdonald
Publisher: Brighter Child
ISBN: 9780872265691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Looks at the lives and social conditions of women in medieval Europe.

Uppity Women of Medieval Times

Uppity Women of Medieval Times PDF Author: Vicki León
Publisher: Conari Press
ISBN: 9781573240390
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This guide to the feisty women of medieval times profiles 200 of these fair and unfair damsels from around the world. There's English rose Hilda of Whitby, Viking leader Aud the Deep-Minded and Wu Zhao of China, who chose to concubine, connive, murder and machiavelli her way to a 50 year reign.

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Women and Power in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Mary Erler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820323810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

Women in England in the Middle Ages

Women in England in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Jennifer Ward
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826419852
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Medieval women faced many of the problems of their modern counterparts in bringing up their families, balancing family and work, and responding to the demands of their communities. Of many women in the period of a thousand years before 1500 we know little or nothing, though their typical ways of life, on farms or in the towns, can be reconstructed with accuracy from a variety of sources. We know more about a far smaller number of elite women, including queens such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Margaret of Anjou; noblewomen, whose characters and attitudes can be sensed directly or indirectly; and a variety of religious women. Literary sources help flesh out real attitudes, such as those of Chaucer's Wife of Bath. Jennifer Ward shows the life-cycle of medieval women, from birth, via marriage and child-rearing, to widowhood and death. She also brings out the slow changes in the position of women over a millennium.

Women in Medieval Europe

Women in Medieval Europe PDF Author: Jennifer Ward
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317888596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
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 in Medieval History and Historiography

Women in Medieval History and Historiography PDF Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 151280729X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
What was the status of women in the Middle Ages? How have women fared in the hands of historians? And, what is the current state of research about women in the Middle Ages? Susan Mosher Stuard addresses these questions in a collection of essays that delve in to the history and historiography of women in medieval England, France, Italy, and Germany. Contributors include Barbara Hanawalt, Diane Owen Hughes, Suzanne Wemple, Denise Kaiser, and Martha Howell. One of the most interesting observations made in Women in Medieval History and Historiography is the way in which the history of women in each country has followed a distinct course that is in rhythm with other concerns of national historical writing. Women in Medieval History and Historiography will interest historians, scholars of women's studies, and medievalists.

Women in the Medieval Court

Women in the Medieval Court PDF Author: Rebecca Holdorph
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526739828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
A surprising look at women who wielded power in medieval Europe, from queens to concubines to abbesses. Medieval society might expect the elite women who decorated its courts to play the role of Queen Guinevere, but many of these women had very different ideas. Great queens, who sometimes ruled in their own right, fought wars and forged empires. Noblewomen acted behind the scenes to change the course of politics. Far from cloistered off from the world, powerful abbesses played the role of kingmaker. And concubines had a role to play as well, both as political actors and as mothers of children who might change a country’s destiny. They experienced tremendous success and dramatic downfalls. This book tells the stories of women from across medieval Europe, from a Danish queen who waged political war to form a Scandinavian empire to a Tuscan countess who joined her troops on the battlefield. Whether they wielded power in battle, from a convent, or from a throne—or even in the bedchamber—these women were far from damsels in distress waiting for their knights in shining armor.

Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages

Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages PDF Author: Vicki León
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 9780471170044
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Some were feisty and fiery. Others were cool and dangerous. All were incredibly courageous. Outrageous Women of The Middle Ages took on the challenge of their world--and didn't worry about ruffling a few feathers. Among the outrageous women you'll meet are: * Eleanor of Aquitaine--queen of France and later England, she led a group of women on the Second Crusade and created her own financial system * Lady Murasaki Shikibu--besides being a wife and mother, she learned the "forbidden" language of Chinese and wrote the world's first novel * Aud the Deep-Minded--a Viking wise woman and explorer who led her clan, grandchildren and all, on a risky voyage from Scotland to Iceland * Hildegarde of Bingen--the German nun who, late in life, became a composer, a botanist, and founded convents * Damia al-Kahina--a nomadic freedom fighter, skilled at peacemaking and war, who kept her North African homeland free

A Medieval Woman's Companion

A Medieval Woman's Companion PDF Author: Susan Signe Morrison
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1785700804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvelous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman’s Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theater, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficking and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalized due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women’s accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.