WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Learning Target: We will learn how medieval women made or used opportunities to improve their lives in spite of the limitations placed on them by society.

SOME BACKGROUND

• Women seen alternately as bad and weak (Eve) and as holy and pure (Mary), and those images continued to influence men’s treatment and perception of women.

• Women were often regarded as children who needed men’s instruction and discipline to avoid falling into evil ways.

• Women who were strange, disliked, or unpleasant might be charged with witchcraft by men or other women.

NOBLEWOMENDisadvantages

• Married young (13-14)• Could not choose own husband• Might bear a child every year by mid-30’s• Some sent away age 7 for training at another

lord’s house (became lady-in-waiting)• Considered inferior to men (all classes)• Subject to discipline by husbands and fathers

(all classes)

NOBLEWOMENResponsibilities

• Supervise servants• Prepare for and entertain visitors• Run all affairs of manor in husband’s absence– Order supplies for castle– Pay bills and wages– Supervise farming and collect rents– Care for sick and injured– Hear complaints from tenants/serfs– Defend castle

NOBLEWOMENOpportunities

• Learned to read, write, and do some math• Learned music, dancing, embroidery, sewing• Horseback riding and hunting• Games• Might inherit kingdom if no sons• Widow might rule if no sons• Could rule as regent for young son

NOBLEWOMENLegal Rights

• Could inherit land• Could rule country• Could run a manor or kingdom in husband’s

absence• Could join a convent instead of remarrying• Land she inherited remained her land even if

she married

SOME BACKGROUND

• There were free and unfree peasants on manors

• Unfree (villiens) were tied to the land and owed many fees to the lord

• Free peasants owned land, could leave, and owed fewer fees but were not necessarily in better financial shape.

PEASANTS/SERFSDisadvantages

• Hard physical labor• For unfree, no upward mobility• Little to no education• Poorest of city girls started work by age 7 (as

servants)• Unfree had to pay a fee to marry someone not

on manor

PEASANTS/SERFSResponsibilities

• Cook and clean• Clean fleece, spin, weave, sew• Help with farm work in fields• Fed livestock• Milked and sheared• Worked as servants in manor house

PEASANTS/SERFSOpportunities

• Limited!• Could inherit land if no sons• If husband died, kept land• Land handed down to children• Might marry landholder or free peasant to

leave manor

PEASANTS/SERFSRights

• Serf got small plot of land to farm on manor• Could bring a complaint against another

peasant at manor court• Free peasants might do better for selves by

selling produce at market or by spinning

SOME BACKGROUND

• Guilds were like early trade unions• Regulated business to keep them honest• Took care of injured members and of wives

and children in case a man died• Regulated training of apprentices and

journeymen• Exercised some political power in towns

TOWNSWOMEN/ARTISANSDisadvantages

• Discrimination from male artisans• Could join guilds but not attend guild social

events• Paid less than men for same work• Low wages forced some women into

prostitution and stealing• Servants the lowest paid• No help in old age – may become beggars

TOWNSWOMEN DISADVANTAGES CONTINUED

•Elderly might trade land and home for place to live and small allowance

•Widows particularly vulnerable

•Most women had to work for a living

TOWNSWOMEN/ARTISANSResponsibilities

• Depended on job • Many in cloth industry, esp. silk• Crafts such as shoemaking, goldsmith, barber,

armorer• Some made food and beverages (particularly

beer and ale)• Innkeepers or restaurant owners

TOWNSWOMEN/ARTISANSOpportunities

• Could become rich• Widows of guildmembers could stay in guild

and take apprentices• If remarried within guild could keep taking

apprentices• Daughters of guildsmen could take up trade

and enter guild• Married in late teens

Townswomen/Artisans Opportunities Continued

• More likely able to choose own husband• Gathered in taverns to socialize with other

women• By end 1300s some schools for girls age 6-12

TOWNSWOMEN/MERCHANTSRights

• Guilds regulated trade and ensured fair treatment of apprentices

• Economic success influenced ability to control own lives

• If married to prosperous merchant might have servants and have to do little work

CHURCHWOMENDisadvantages

• Lives strictly controlled• No marriage• Could not own anything• Not often among people• Generally only available to noblewomen (fee

to enter convent)• Might be placed by family if had no dowry

CHURCHWOMENResponsibilities

• Depended on the order• Praying• Reading/writing• Needlework• Caring for sick• Teaching young girls

CHURCHWOMENOpportunities

• Education• Possibility of earning prestige and power (esp

as abbess)• Avoid arranged marriages• Noble widows might join to avoid remarrying• Security into old age

CHURCHWOMENRights

• Participated in running of convent• Free to remain single

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• In which class did women have the most opportunities to improve their condition and control their own lives?

• In which class do women have the most opportunities to improve their condition and control their own lives in 2011?

• In which class did women live the hardest lives?• What would the women with the hardest lives

have in common with the women who have the hardest lives in 2011?

HITTING THE TARGET

• Write a paragraph explaining how women managed to improve their lives and create opportunities for themselves in the middle ages in spite of the limitations imposed on them.