Medieval Housewife

Medieval women also had many images that were expected of them. “Some women were known as witches, capable of sorcery and healing. Others became nuns and devoted their lives to God and spiritual matters” (Feudal Life). They were given the image of being a witch for doing things men thought women were incapable of doing also to give themselves a better image the women became nuns and gave their lives to God. The most common symbol of the Peasant women was the distaff. Eve is often illustrated with a distaff showing her performing manual labor after the fall from paradise. In medieval art it shows a woman waving her distaff at a fox with a goose in its jaws. In satirical images, it shows women attacking their husbands with a distaff or other

A woman’s role was to tend to the house and family. Women were to be dependent on the men in their lives; their jobs were the domestic tasks and those certainly did not pay. The rare woman who went against the social norm, usually out of necessity, could be found as a tailor, servant, housekeeper, or dressmaker. They

However, one thing women could not do is they could not hold an office. The woman in the house was essentially the housekeeper. She cooked, cleaned, and raised children. The freedom of the woman depended upon the wealth of the family. Often times higher status women were not tasked with as many household oriented chores.

Women, in general, were expected to be able to run their homes, taking care of their spouses and children in whatever form was needed at the

The majority of people in medieval Britain, both men and women, lived as farmers. Surely this was a life dominated by men at the time, with the heavy and physical work demanded in the fields? In fact, peasant life was very much about a partnership between husband and wife in raising a family and working the fields. At crucial times in the farming year, particularly harvesting seasons. Women worked alongside men in the fields.

A woman had a busy domestic life. A woman played the role of wife, mother, teacher and manager. She had to please her husband, bear and raise children, educate her children, and manage all daily household activities. In the home, the woman was the jack of all trades. Part of the role of the female was to take raw goods, and turn them into useful items, such as food, candles, and clothing. Women had to clean, butcher and prepare all game brought home to the family. A woman was a household factory. Many items in the home were created by women. All clothing was made by spinning, weaving and stitching. All cloth was washed by hand without the aid of any machines. Candles were made at home by weaving a wick and pouring hot wax into a mold. A woman had to be educated enough to teach her sons and daughters the skills of life. Women spent the majority of their time performing daily tasks, but still were able to have leisure activities such as painting, embroidery, and charity work. Women had very few legal rights. In the majority of colonies, women had no legal control over their lives. It was the consensus among society that

“Most women had little control over the direction their lives took. Once widowed, they had autonomy over considerable financial resources” (Bovey). Women were weak and men had control over their whole lives unless they were widowed. “Women didn’t have political rights, and they didn’t get to choose if they got married or had children. Women didn’t have an education and only if they inherited land they would have the same rights as men” (C N). This was the only case where women had the same rights as men. This rarely occurred because not very many women inherited land, men usually inherited it. Women generally didn’t have an education, so there was little chance for them to be better than men or in a higher power. They were not allowed to know what men did so they were always at A disadvantage. “Women had to obey men but a lot of times they were treated well. Women were treated by their social rank” (Women During the Middle Ages). Not only did men control women, but women were also defined by their social rank. How much money they had determined when they got married, there clothes, there husbands, and where they lived. “Poor women lived in small houses. Wealthy women had servants to do everything for them” (Women in the Middle

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

Among the various kinds of meat, pork was the most common one because domestic pigs were easy to raise on just organic waste. Inanition to pork, lamb was also a common type of meat which could be seen on Medieval English people’s dining-table due to the prosperous development of wool industry. However, beef was not as common as it is today because feeding cattle required pasture and huge amount of fodders. Therefore, most of the cattle were kept to produce milk, and only those were old and no longer to work would be killed to eat. Hunted Birds, including swans, quails, and peafowls, were also sources of meat. Upper class people raised and ate birds, like swans and peafowls, while the lower class people could only eat chicken. Because of the limitation of land and cost to feed, meat were far more expensive than the other foods, like bread, and could be mainly consumed by rich people. This situation continued until the coming of Black Death, most of the population died so that large areas became available for pasture. Moreover, the decrease of the population generated a shortage of labor, therefore, people’s wages were increased so much that even poor people can afford foods, like meat and fresh

Women were expected to basically be merely an object, even a trophy for their husbands. They were expected to stay home and clean, as well as cook. With all these expected tasks, women hardly had any time to branch out and figure out what they wanted to do with their life. They had no time for leisure activities of any kind because, of course, their activities involved taking care of the house. Women were also seen as the weaker sex, always submissive to their dominant male counterpart. Although the women were submissive, they were held to a higher moral standard. Adultery was twice shamed upon if committed by a woman rather than a man. (Hughes par.3) A woman could be stoned to death, but people would turn their cheek for a man while the woman still was expected to stay beside the man.

However, this document does not tell us what married women’s lives were like at this time and place, only what men thought and expected of them. Aside from the main focus in this document of women, it also tells about the lives of merchants. Since the wife had such explicit housekeeping instructions, it implies that merchants are not home very often. In addition, it shows that the husband has authority over both his wife and the household. But, since this document primarily discusses the ways in which a wife should act, it is evident that the intended target of this document would specifically be the author’s wife. But, since this letter ended up gaining popularity, the intended target audience would be medieval women of marrying age or newly-wed women.

Before the end of the 15th century, farmers had some sense of financial freedom through their relationship to the property. Several people lived on ten to thirty acreages of land. The land was preserved by the ruler but assigned to one of his nobles to who the laborers paid rent. In exchange for the rent peasants had some common rights to graze stock, cut wood, draw water, or cultivate harvests on the noble's land. Such communal privileges gave the laborers some financial individuality. They grew their own crops; grazed animals and recycled their wastes to fertilize their gardens. This was the system of feudalism. Because life was socially and economically congregated, the laborers had a diminutive chance to expand their custom of living.

The novel Great Expectations shows perfect examples of the grandeur of food in Victorian England, but also the lack of it. Also, it shows the social aspect surrounding food. In the book, Mrs.

Women in this time lived a hard life as well. Regardless of their status in society, they were tied to household tasks (“The Middle Ages”). This including duties such as cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children, sewing, and baking. Along with these jobs, women also

While she was a child, she would learn how to act properly as a lady. Her father would usually be knight and her family would be noble (Butterfield 9). Her husband’s family were friends with her father because her father’s land was in the neighboring area (Butterfield 9). She was taught from a young age about how she should behave (Butterfield 9). When she was born, she was forced and expected to be a lady and had no choice in any other lifestyle (Butterfield 9). When she got to the proper age for marriage her new life as a lady would start. The wife of a knight (nobility) was called a lady (Butterfield 9). The lady would be the most noble in her husband’s manor, the lady of the manor (Butterfield 9). Her husband had a higher ranking than her and had more rights than she did. St. Augustine, a famous philosopher of the Christian church wrote “The husband should give orders to the wife, parents to the children and masters should give orders to servants” (Howarth 25). Her husband also owned everything on the estate. The law stated that everything that she owned belonged to him and she was ranked second after husband on the estate (Butterfield 9). The lady and her husband have their own servants to dress them, look after their clothes and their well being (Butterfield 15). Marriage was important for the lady. It linked two important families together and was a way to increase wealth or prestige of each family. It was not for love between two people (Howarth 25). At seven years old, she would know who her husband was going to be (Butterfield 9) and soon enough she would be married off to a husband of a much older age (Howarth 25). Her husband was chosen from a suitable background (Howarth 25) and the lady would have married the knight at around 13 years old and would have left her family’s estate or manor for her husband's manor which was not far from her old home (Butterfield