Roles that Women Played in the Middle Ages
By Meagan

Back in the "middle ages," where there were strong kings, knights, and warriors, there were also women. They were housewives of the master of the house (their husband), or peasants, or even slaves. Around that time the majority of them were peasants.

Women, who worked as peasants, would make big contributions to society. A peasant woman worked very hard, and had very long days. They had the same jobs all day, day after day, mostly farm work. Many peasants didn't marry, some peasants became servants. Sometimes jobs were very dangerous for peasant women. There was a story told about a girl: "About nones on 2 Oct, 1270, Amice, daughter of Robert Belamy of Staploe and Sibyl Bonchevaler were carrying a tub full of grout between then in the brew house of Lady Juliana de Beauchamp...intending to empty it in a boiling leaden vat, when Amice slipped and fell into the vat and the tub upon her...the household came and found her scalded almost to death. A chaplain came and Amice had the rites of the church and died by misadventure about prime the day."

As said before, many peasants became servants. Not only peasants, but daughters from poor families aswell, were often worked as servants to earn money for their families. As a servant, they would do the 'crafts' in the house, and/or look after the children of their master. The main jobs of a servant were to clean, cook and do all other housework.

A lot of women were housewives. A woman who was married worked in the house of her husband, (she was called a housewife), and she would also run errands in the village for the family, such as buying the food and any other needs for the household-(married men would work in fields, roads, ad forest). At home a woman would do the housework, which would mostly be cooking, and cleaning. She would look after the animals, and help in the fields somethimes, if her husband needed the help. She would also have to look after the children (if ther were any), which sometimes would be time absorbing. Children in Italy were often sent to other people's houses to teach them "better manners", and would be served and provided with food. Although, some people said that they thought the parents did that because they enjoyed spending time to themselves. Sometimes the woman would have to get a job such as spinning to help support the family.

Some women worked at companies, the crafting companies were important in the medieval European towns, from the 11th and 12th centuries and on. Some of the medival companies would let women join, although, most of the companies wouldn't.

There were also urban workingwomen, who were women working in the cities, and lived different lives than the peasans. In the 12th century, women played a role in the work force and in some business. Women had man different jobs. Although women found that these occupations were somewhat related to their jobs as housewives or to the "lightercrafts". An interesting fact is that married women usually worked at their husband's trade, but in rare cases, they might work at a trade of their own. Women were very invovled with making and selling food and beverages. Women also did trading, some women were even prostitutes.

When women did work, they were paid minimum wages. Women were paid less than men. Women would usually be paid about half of whatever the men were paid, although, it was said that women received a higher wage in an occupation such as dying, spinning thread, etc., than men.

A majority of the women were peasants, as I said earlier, although there were women who came from noble families who played some different roles. Most of the women who came from noble families were nuns, who would sometimes write about what was going on during their time for later historians. A little later on, they also began joining religious groups. Although, not all of them worked (for someone to get paid), for her husband would sometimes support the family.

In the middle ages, the head of the household was usually the one who would look after the rest of the family when they were sick, although, there were also women who would look after other womens' health needs. There were two jobs for their needs: one was being the midwife and the other was the wet nurses. A midwife was in charge of the birth process. A midwife was also known to have some knowledge on sorcery. They would use "magical" practices to ease the delivery of the baby. They would use things such as "precious stones with magical properties", or "wonderworking girdles".

A wet nurse was a women who would nurse a baby after its birth. To be able to apply for this job, it would have to been a woman of young age, who had had a baby before, so that they had milk. A wet nurse would be hired for various reasons. One would be for wealthy family, and another would be for a mother who could not produce milk. It was interesting how the wet nurses were hired. They had to be interviewed for character, health, and also for appearance, the thought being that the nurse would somewhat resemble the child's mother. The nurse's breasts had to be checked, if they were too large, they might flatten the infant's nose.

In conclusion, there is a poem on the topic of working women. This poem shows that women were, and still are, "worthy". It is saying that women are just as special as men, and people should not judge women all the time. Also, it states that women should not be known for doing all the work, and that they are not weaklings.

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