Work

Question 1

Women played a vital role in…

Answer 1

Medieval economy

Question 2

There was a common idea that women’s work was…

Answer 2

Fundamentally different from men’s, and that jobs were socially determined

Question 3

Only a fraction of jobs accomplished by women are…

Answer 3

Represented in manuscripts

Question 4

Images of women at work are grounded in reality but not…

Answer 4

Totally accurate or representative

Question 5

Women were predominantly responsible for domestic chores such as…

Answer 5

Childcare, cooking, cleaning, flaxwork, woolwork, nursing the sick and elderly

Question 6

Women did a lot of farm work. Their roles on the farm included…

Answer 6

Planting and tending vegetables, harvesting crops, caring for poultry, milking livestock, churning butter and making cheese, cleaning and shearing sheep

Question 7

The prominence assigned to female harvesters in art pre-1400 is almost unparalleled, possibly symbolic of…

Answer 7

Fertility and procreation, with sexual allusions as well

Question 8

Calendars recording major holy days in liturgical and devotional books often depicted…

Answer 8

Images of women doing typical tasks for each month

Question 9

Women in rural communities had to do a lot of chores alone, including…

Answer 9

Rising at night to comfort children, milking at dawn, feeding the fowl, baking, brewing, carding and spinning wool, and preparing meals

Question 10

Wealthy women were not compelled to perform such demanding physical jobs and had more…

Answer 10

Varied, less strenuous routines

Question 11

Christine du Pizan’s “Book of Three Virtues” recommended a woman know…

Answer 11

The yearly income of her estate, discuss finance with her husband, understand property management, watch out for napping workers, and instruct maids

Question 12

Knowledge of estate management was imperative because…

Answer 12

Husbands were often absent due to to war or business, or they might die

Question 13

Women could not have careers in…

Answer 13

Law, civic government, academia, or the church

Question 14

Domestic servitude:

Answer 14

• some were paid a wage and lived away, whilst others got board and lodging with a single payment at the end of employment
• women in this line of work had to forfeit freedom and privacy

Question 15

Construction work:

Answer 15

• digging ditches and latrines
• hauling bricks, sand, and stones (cathedral of Siena)
• laying roof tiles (Parma Charterhouse)
• paid half the rate of men

Question 16

Manuscript trade:

Answer 16

-legal documents include female surnames which indicate this line of work, such as La Lumenore, Le Luminers, and Le Bokebindere

Question 17

Prostitution:

Answer 17

-independently or in brothels, some of which were disguised as bathhouses

Question 18

Other avenues of employment open to women:

Answer 18

Wet nurses, laundresses, spice merchants, teachers, brewers, weavers, acrobats, thread and silk manufacturing, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, tavern and inn management, and market stall trading

Question 19

The town of Flanders was well known for…

Answer 19

Having a lot of independent female workers in the markets and factories as a chief commercial centre in Western Europe

Question 20

Textile manufacturing:

Answer 20

• female dominated industry
• made luxury items like gold thread and silk
• female-only guilds in Cologne, Paris, and Rouen
• young female apprentices (8-11) learned the trade for 4-6 years in return for bed and board

Question 21

Women who worked in family business with their husbands or fathers had more…

Answer 21

Autonomy, stability, and chance of earning a decent wage

Question 22

Many women who mastered their trades could run…

Answer 22

Businesses independently after their husbands died

Question 23

Johanna Hill (1400s)…

Answer 23

Londoner who took over her late husband’s bell making foundry in 1440 until her death a year later. Seven of her bells still exist, each bearing a mark of her arms.