Women in Medieval Society

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.

Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 04/01/1976
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.19h x 6.11w x 0.67d
ISBN: 9780812210880

About the Author
Susan Mosher Stuard is Professor of History Emeritus at Haverford College. She is editor of Women in Medieval History and Historiography and author of A State of Deference: Ragusa/Dubrovnik in the Medieval Centuries and Gilding the Market: Luxury and Fashion in Fourteenth-Century Italy, all published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.