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Full Description
Exploring women's stories of work, protest, and power in the medieval Low Countries
The Middle Ages—a time often cast as a dark period when violence reigned and men dominated society. Women, as the deeply rooted cliché would have it, played scarcely any part. But this book tells a different story, one in which women step forward as the main characters. In the southern Low Countries, townswomen held substantial rights, which they used to conduct business, voice their opinions, and assert their will.
Urban Women presents a different and lesser-known image of the late Middle Ages, from 1250 to 1550. The authors trace the lives of women protesting, marrying, making love, working, and engaging in the daily life of Low Countries towns. In doing so, this book gives voice to wealthy businesswomen, laborers, religious women, criminals, and sex workers, spotlighting the remarkable figures who shaped a "women's town" within a man's world.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction. A different history of the medieval city
Chapter 1. From girlhood to widowhood: On the rights of women and children
Andrea Bardyn & Jelle Haemers
Chapter 2. Women and marriage: Choice of partner, matrimonial conflicts, and relations
Chanelle Delameillieure
Chapter 3. Industrious women and their life in business
Andrea Bardyn
Chapter 4. Pious women: Beguines and their virtuous lives together
Kim Overlaet
Chapter 5. Working women: women's professional activities in and outside craft guilds
Nena Vandeweerdt & Jelle Haemers
Chapter 6. "Bad women": Violence, crime, and rebellion
Jelle Haemers
Chapter 7. Eros and women: Sexuality, consent, and prostitution
Chanelle Delameillieure & Jelle Haemers
Conclusions. Of "wise women" and "witless men"
Primary sources
Literature
About the authors
