Introduction to the Medieval World: Class 22
Class 22: Gendered History: Roles of Medieval Women and Men
Assigned Reading:
-
Hollister, 177-82, 187-88,
-
Empress
Matilda: To Archbishop Anselm
-
Peter
of Blois: Letter 154, to Queen Eleanor, 1173
-
Tables
of Kindred and Degrees - both Roman and German methods of calculation
-
Le
Menagier [or Goodman] of Paris: on ideal marriage
-
Bernardino
of Siena: Sermons on Wives and Widows
-
Geoffrey
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales: Prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale [Modern Text]
-
Sale
of Daughter as a Concubine
-
Heloise:
Letter to Abelard
-
Homoerotic
Texts
-
WWW Reading: John
Thorp: "Review Article/Discussion: The Social Construction of Homosexuality
", Phoenix 46.1 (1992) p54-65
-
WWW Reading: Gunnora Hallakarva Homosexuality
in the Viking Age
-
WWW Extra: Robbins
Library Bibliography: Bibliography of Works by and about Women Writers
of the Middle Ages
-
WWW Extra: Bernardette Brooten, "Early
Church Responses to Lesbian Sex" The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review,
Volume III, No. 4, Fall, 1996. [At HGLC.org]
-
WWW Link: Medieval
and Renaissance Weddings
-
WWW Link: People
With a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History
I. Introduction - Gender in History
A. Fields of history
-Political and constitutional - reflects Whig concerns
-economic - reflects Marxist concerns
-social - reflects sociological concerns
-History of mentalities - reflects Freudian concerns
Recent political social movements
-Black
-Women's
-Gay and Lesbian
-Has implications for what historians study.
B. Women in History
Half of humanity is women. Yet look at history books.
Virtually all men.
This reflects a very real truth. Historiography has
tended to concentrate on public aspects of life, but for
centuries women have been excluded from public roles.
Recent history has tried to widen the picture.
-By looking at private life and roles
-Most women were married, ergo look at marriage
-looking at demography
-looking at what power/agency women did have.
C. Many viewpoints in Women's history [and feminism]
-Great mothers
-Explaining patriarchy
-Explaining how things came together culturally.
D. Variety of women's experience
Even in the middle ages we have been able to outline changes
in society and culture that had effect on women's lives.
Women's lives varied over time and distance. They had
many roles to play.
II. Women's Marital Status
Probably the most important aspect of a women's life, and
the possibilities open to her was her marital status
A. Unmarried - Under father's or mother's rule
might have responsibility around the house
Not usually educated
B. Married - Under husband's rule
Child rearing probably major role
C. Widowed - Most powerful position
Had control of own income
could be married off by a feudal lord.
III. Women and Work
A. Peasants
Married -Farm work
-Housework
Widowed -Brewing ale
-Sewing
B. Aristocracy
-Uncomfortable living arrangements at first
-household management
-sewing
C. Townswomen - after commercial revolution gets under way
-Women's guilds
-selling food - hucksters
-attempts to exclude them in some towns
D. Women and the Professions
-Teaching - only in convents
-Law - no
-Medicine - yes - tradition of women doctors, not many
-Midwives
IV. Women and Power
A woman's position then depended very often on her relationship
to a man. But this did not mean women lacked all power or agency.
A. Sources and reality
Most written by men.
Also we have to rely on laws etc.
But we see even lower class women could boss around their
husband son occasion - Wife of Bath.
Personal circumstance can never be ignored.
B. Aristocrats
-Widows - administrating lands
Supporting and promoting children
Commissioning art and writing
Women as book owners
C. Queens
Repeatedly women could hold power as Queens
Not usually Queens regnant, although that too
sometimes
- Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Blanche of Castile
- Urarca of Leon/Castile
V. Women and Religion
A. Bible - Has powerful women
Naomi and Ruth. Delilah, Mary Magdalene, BV Mary.
B. Early Church
Order of Widows
Deaconesses
C. Patristic Misogyny - Mix biology and story of Eve
-Women as fields to be plowed
-as deficient men
-women as bringers of sin into the world
-as sexually voracious
-Reflected in Gregorian reform.
D. Nuns
1. Double Monasteries in early middle ages
2. Women's Monasteries - enclosure
3. St. Clare - failure to break out
Appeal of vita apostolica
E. Late Medieval Women's Religion and Mysticism
-Women living together - Beguines. Late 13th C. on
-Mysticism -Julian of Norwich. Jesus as Mother
-Use of food to control bodies.
F. Women writers
Hildegard of Bingen
Christine de Pisan
VI. Varieties of Marriage
A. Choice in Marriage
Church law v. Family strategy -
-Royalty and Aristocratic women
-Townswomen
-Peasants
B. Women and Sex - Double standard
- to preserve lineages
- not a sufficient explanation
C. Early middle ages - shortage of women - Brideprice
D. Later middle ages - Dowry system
E. European Marriage Pattern - Hajnal
develops in late middle ages
-Equal ages
-Late marriage
-few children
Possibly contribute to development of capitalism and
industrialization.
VII. Women and Children
Theory of history of childhood
-Philippe Aries - no children in MA
-Psychohistory - constant transference
BUT
There were children in the middle ages.
High Mortality
VII A new Field - The history of Sexuality?
Class discussion on "homoerotic texts" and Thorp readings.
Did heterosexuality exist in the middle ages?
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© Paul Halsall, 1996.
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