• List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments
• 1. The broader picture: the global determinants of female agency and economic growth
• 2. The patterns behind change: origins and features of the European Marriage Pattern
• 3. Effects on human capital formation
• 4. Effect on capital market development
• 5. The effect on the labour market: women's wages, human capital formation and fertility
• 6. The 'dark side' of the EMP? Testing the nuclear hardship hypothesis
• 7. The institutional effect: alternatives for family ties, the role of trust and the emergence of the commercial household
• 8. Beguines: living single and safe
• 9. Conclusion: the EMP in Eurasian Perspective References Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

How women increasingly became economic agents in early modern Europe is the focus of this stimulating book, which highlights how female agency was crucial for understanding the development of the Western European economy and sheds light on economic development today. Jan Luiten van Zanden, Tine De Moor and Sarah Carmichael argue that over centuries a "European Marriage Pattern" developed, characterized by high numbers of singles among men and women, high marriage ages among men and women, and neolocality, where the couple forms a new nuclear household and did not co-reside with the parents of either bride or groom. This was due to the influence of the Catholic Church's teachings of marriage based on consensus, the rise of labor markets, and institutions concerning property transfers between generations that enhanced wage labor by women. Over time an unprecedented demographic regime was created and embedded in a highly commercial environment in which households interacted frequently with labor, capital and commodity markets. This was one of the main causes of the gradual move away from a Malthusian state towards an economy able to generate long-term economic growth. The authors explore how the pattern was influenced by and influenced female human capital formation, access to the capital market, and participation in the labor market. They use numerous measures of economic activity, including the unique "Girlpower-Index" that measures the average age at first marriage of women minus the spousal age gap, with higher absolute age at marriage and lower spousal age gap both indicating greater female agency and autonomy. The book also examines how this measure can increase understanding of contemporary dynamics of women and the economy. The authors thus shed light on the degree to which women are allowed to play an influential role in and on the economy and society, which varies greatly from one society to another.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments
• 1. The broader picture: the global determinants of female agency and economic growth
• 2. The patterns behind change: origins and features of the European Marriage Pattern
• 3. Effects on human capital formation
• 4. Effect on capital market development
• 5. The effect on the labour market: women's wages, human capital formation and fertility
• 6. The 'dark side' of the EMP? Testing the nuclear hardship hypothesis
• 7. The institutional effect: alternatives for family ties, the role of trust and the emergence of the commercial household
• 8. Beguines: living single and safe
• 9. Conclusion: the EMP in Eurasian Perspective References Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

How women increasingly became economic agents in early modern Europe is the focus of this stimulating book, which highlights how female agency was crucial for understanding the development of the Western European economy and sheds light on economic development today. Jan Luiten van Zanden, Tine De Moor and Sarah Carmichael argue that over centuries a "European Marriage Pattern" developed, characterized by high numbers of singles among men and women, high marriage ages among men and women, and neolocality, where the couple forms a new nuclear household and did not co-reside with the parents of either bride or groom. This was due to the influence of the Catholic Church's teachings of marriage based on consensus, the rise of labor markets, and institutions concerning property transfers between generations that enhanced wage labor by women. Over time an unprecedented demographic regime was created and embedded in a highly commercial environment in which households interacted frequently with labor, capital and commodity markets. This was one of the main causes of the gradual move away from a Malthusian state towards an economy able to generate long-term economic growth. The authors explore how the pattern was influenced by and influenced female human capital formation, access to the capital market, and participation in the labor market. They use numerous measures of economic activity, including the unique "Girlpower-Index" that measures the average age at first marriage of women minus the spousal age gap, with higher absolute age at marriage and lower spousal age gap both indicating greater female agency and autonomy. The book also examines how this measure can increase understanding of contemporary dynamics of women and the economy. The authors thus shed light on the degree to which women are allowed to play an influential role in and on the economy and society, which varies greatly from one society to another.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

For decades, medieval scholarship has been dominated by the paradigm that women who wielded power after c. 1100 were exceptions to the "rule" of female exclusion from governance and the public sphere. This collection makes a powerful case for a new paradigm. Building on the premise that elite women in positions of authority were expected, accepted, and routine, these essays traverse the cities and kingdoms of France, England, Germany, Portugal, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in order to illuminate women's roles in medieval power structures. Without losing sight of the predominance of patriarchy and misogyny, contributors lay the groundwork for the acceptance of female public authority as normal in medieval society, fostering a new framework for understanding medieval elite women and power.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chronology of Medieval Chinese Dynasties and Eras Introduction
• 1 Family
• 2 Mothers
• 3 Politics
• 4 Work
• 5 Religion
• 6 Learning
• 7 Virtue
• 8 Ideals Conclusion: An Awakening of Female Consciousness Glossary Notes Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This important study provides the only comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty in 581 AD, also known as the Six Dynasties. Bret Hinsch offers rich descriptions of the most important aspects of female life in this era, including family and marriage, motherhood, political power, work, inheritance, education, and religious roles. He traces women's lived experiences as well as the emotional life and the ideals they pursued. Building on the best Western and Japanese scholarship, Hinsch also draws heavily on Chinese primary sources and scholarship, most of which is unknown outside China. As the first study in English about women in the early medieval era, this groundbreaking book will open a new window into Chinese history for Western readers.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. Approaching Women and Work in Premodern Europe
• [Merridee L. Bailey, Tania M. Colwell, and Julie Hotchin]
• 2. Working Through Letters: Women's Voices and Epistolary Culture in the Tegernseer Liebesbriefe
• [Diana Jeske]
• 3. Uncourtly Cloth Workers in the Old French Sewing Songs
• [E. Jane Burns]
• 4. "When Adam Delved and Eve Span": Gender and Textile Production in the Middle Ages
• [Sarah Randles]
• 5. "Fortune ce mestier m'aprist": Christine de Pizan as Writer, Teacher, and Voice of Wisdom
• [Ellen Thorington]
• 6. Home Work: The Bourgeois Wife in Later Medieval England
• [Jeremy Goldberg]
• 7. Gender, Authority and Monastic Work: Holy Cross in Brunswick, c. 1500
• [Julie Hotchin]
• 8. "any Man or Woman being hole & mighty in body": Women's Work Under Tudor Vagrancy Law
• [Nicholas Dean Brodie]
• 9. Working at the Margins: Women and Illicit Economic Practices in Lyon in the Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
• [Anne Montenach]
• 10. Contested Authority: Working Women in Leading Positions in the Early Modern Dutch Urban Economy
• [Ariadne Schmidt].
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book re-evaluates and extends understandings about how work was conceived and what it could entail for women in the premodern period in Europe from c. 1100 to c. 1800. It does this by building on the impressive growth in literature on women's working experiences, and by adopting new interpretive approaches that expand received assumptions about what constituted 'work' for women. While attention to the diversity of women's contributions to the economy has done much to make the breadth of women's experiences of labour visible, this volume takes a more expansive conceptual approach to the notion of work and considers the social and cultural dimensions in which activities were construed and valued as work. This interdisciplinary collection thus advances concepts of work that encompass cultural activities in addition to more traditional economic understandings of work as employment or labour for production. The chapters reconceptualise and explore work for women by asking how the working lives of historical women were enacted and represented, and analyse the relationships that shaped women's experiences of work across the European premodern period.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Figures Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction
• 1. Visigothic Inheritance, Asturian Monarchy Virgins and Martyrs Networks of Property, Networks of Power Memory, Gift, and Death Looking Forward, Looking Beyond Works Cited Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"In Her Father's Daughter, Lucy K. Pick looks to a much-neglected aspect of the history of the Spanish kingdoms in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Her book is novel and original."--Teofilo Ruiz, author of A King Travels" Her Father's Daughter...
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
"In Her Father's Daughter, Lucy K. Pick looks to a much-neglected aspect of the history of the Spanish kingdoms in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Her book is novel and original."-Teofilo Ruiz, author of A King Travels "Her Father's Daughter will contribute to and enrich ongoing discussions regarding the role and evolution of the medieval monarchy."-Nuria Silleras-Fernandez, author of Chariots of Ladies In Her Father's Daughter, Lucy K. Pick considers a group of royal women in the early medieval kingdoms of the Asturias and of Leon-Castilla; their lives say a great deal about structures of power and the roles of gender and religion within the early Iberian kingdoms. Pick examines these women, all daughters of kings, as members of networks of power that work variously in parallel, in concert, and in resistance to some forms of male power, and contends that only by mapping these networks do we gain a full understanding of the nature of monarchical power. Pick's focus on the roles, possibilities, and limitations faced by these royal women forces us to reevaluate medieval gender norms and their relationship to power and to rethink the power structures of the era. Well illustrated with images of significant objects, Her Father's Daughter is marked by Pick's wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach, which encompasses liturgy, art, manuscripts, architecture, documentary texts, historical narratives, saints' lives, theological treatises, and epigraphy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Figures Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction
• 1. Visigothic Inheritance, Asturian Monarchy Virgins and Martyrs Networks of Property, Networks of Power Memory, Gift, and Death Looking Forward, Looking Beyond Works Cited Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"In Her Father's Daughter, Lucy K. Pick looks to a much-neglected aspect of the history of the Spanish kingdoms in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Her book is novel and original."-Teofilo Ruiz, author of A King Travels "Her Father's Daughter will contribute to and enrich ongoing discussions regarding the role and evolution of the medieval monarchy."-Nuria Silleras-Fernandez, author of Chariots of Ladies In Her Father's Daughter, Lucy K. Pick considers a group of royal women in the early medieval kingdoms of the Asturias and of Leon-Castilla; their lives say a great deal about structures of power and the roles of gender and religion within the early Iberian kingdoms. Pick examines these women, all daughters of kings, as members of networks of power that work variously in parallel, in concert, and in resistance to some forms of male power, and contends that only by mapping these networks do we gain a full understanding of the nature of monarchical power. Pick's focus on the roles, possibilities, and limitations faced by these royal women forces us to reevaluate medieval gender norms and their relationship to power and to rethink the power structures of the era. Well illustrated with images of significant objects, Her Father's Daughter is marked by Pick's wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach, which encompasses liturgy, art, manuscripts, architecture, documentary texts, historical narratives, saints' lives, theological treatises, and epigraphy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Medieval ideals of womanhood
• Warnings to medieval women
• Medieval women in daily life
• Medieval women in the arts.

When one thinks of women in the Middle Ages, the images that often come to mind are those of damsels in distress, mystics in convents, female laborers in the field, and even women of ill repute. In reality, however, medieval conceptions of womanhood were multifaceted, and women's roles were varied and nuanced. Female stereotypes existed in the medieval world, but so too did women of power and influence. The pages of illuminated manuscripts reveal to us the many facets of medieval womanhood and slices of medieval life--from preoccupations with biblical heroines and saints to courtship, childbirth, and motherhood. While men dominated artistic production, this volume demonstrates the ways in which female artists, authors, and patrons were instrumental in the creation of illuminated manuscripts. Featuring over one hundred illuminations depicting medieval women from England to Ethiopia, this book provides a lively and accessible introduction to the lives of women in the medieval world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Dedication to Carolyn P. Collette / Arlyn Diamond
• Introduction: Medieval women and their objects / Jenny Adams and Nancy Mason Bradbury
• Part 1. Objects and gender in a material world
• The "thyng wommen loven moost" : The wife of Bath's fabliau answer / Susanna Fein
• Zenobia's Objects / Nancy Mason Bradbury
• The object of miraculous song in "The Prioress's Tale" / Howell Chickering
• Part 2. Buildings, books, and women's (self-)fashioning
• A gift from the queen : the architecture of the Collège de Navarre in Paris / Michael T. Davis
• Anne of Bohemia and the objects of Ricardian kingship / Lynn Staley
• Royal biography as reliquary : Christine de Pizan's Livre des Fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V / Nadia Margolis
• A gift, a mirror, a memorial : The psalter-hours of Mary de Bohun / Jill C. Havens
• "Parchment and pure flesh" : Elizabeth de Vere, countess of the twelfth earl of Oxford, and her book / Jocelyn Wogan-Browne
• Part 3. Bodies, objects, and objects in the shape of bodies
• Objects of the law : the cases of Dorigen and Virginia / Eleanor Johnson
• Galatea's pulse : objects, ethics, and Jean de Meun's conclusion / Robert R. Edwards
• Transgender and the chess queen in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess / Jenny Adams
• Statues, bodies, and souls : St. Cecilia and some Medieval attitudes toward ancient Rome / C. David Benson.

The essays in Medieval Women and Their Objects present multifacetedconsiderations of the intersection of objects and gender within thecultural contexts of late medieval France and England. Some take amaterial view of objects, showing buildings, books, and pictures as sitesof gender negotiation and resistance and as extensions of women'sbodies. Others reconsider the concept of objectification in the lives ofmedieval women-either fictional or historical-by looking closely attheir relation to gendered material objects, taken literally as women'spossessions and as figurative manifestations of their desires. Essays in the opening section consider how medieval authors imaginedfictional and legendary women using particular objects in ways thatreinforce or challenge gender roles. These women bring objects into theorbit of gender identity, using and relating to them in a literal sense, while also taking advantage of their symbolic meanings. The secondsection focuses on the use of texts both as objects in their own rightand as mechanisms by which other objects are defined. The possessorsof objects in these essays lived in the world, their lives documented byhistorical records, yet like their fictional and legendary counterparts, theytoo used objects for instrumental ends and with symbolic resonances.Contributors to the final section consider the objectification of medievalwomen's bodies as well as its limits. While objectification at times seemsto allow for a trade in women, authorial attempts to give definitive shapesand boundaries to women's bodies either complicate the very genderboundaries they are trying to contain or reduce gender into an ideologicalabstraction.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The study of medieval women has flourished over the last forty years or so, challenging the idea of a universality of experience among women. This new collection of major works from Routledge addresses the different ways in which medieval women have been studied by looking at religious and secular women, women according to their stage in the life cycle, and according to their social status. Important theoretical issues are also tackled, such as the applicability of terms such as misogyny, anti-feminism, and feminism, the cultural construction of the body, and the periodization of women's history.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Mécénat artistique et bibliophilique
• Mécénat et culture dévote chez Marie de Clèves, duchesse d'Orléans (1426-1487)
• Marguerite de Rohan à la cour d'Angoulême : culture littéraire et arts du livre
• Les manuscrits enluminés pour Jeanne de France, duchesse de Bourbon
• Bibliophiles de mère en fille : Marie de Balsac (t 1504) et Anne de Graville (t 1540)
• New Perspectives on Devotional Manuscripts Associated with Margaret of Austria and Her Relations: The Role of the Prayer Books Master
• Femmes éduquées, femmes éducatrices
• Via femina: Female Patronage of Vernacular Religious Texts in Thirteenth-Century Picardy
• Thys ys the boke of dame anne': British Library MS Harley 4012 and the Context of Its Production
• Les bréviaires, objets de transmission entre chanoinesses à la collégiale Sainte-Waudru de Mons (Hainaut)
• Une iconographie féminisée
• Micrographic Prayers for Monks and Colorful Images for Nuns: Evidence for Gender-Specific Decoration in Liturgical Manuscripts from Late-Medieval Germany
• La Légende dorée, Paris, BnF fr. 244-245 (1480 1485) : un manuscrit conçu pour Catherine de Coètivy ?
• Traduction et adaptation d'un manuscrit des XXI Epistres d'Ovide appartenant à Louise de Savoie (Paris, BnF fr. 875)
• Tensions fécondes dans la construction de publics féminins à l'aube de la Renaissance française : les exemples de La Nef des dames vertueuses de Symphorien Champier et de La Louenge de mariage et recueil des hystoires des bonnes, vertueuses et illustres femmes de Pierre de Lesnauderie
• Livres italiens à figures et " illustration " des femmes à Lyon au XVIe siècle
• Héroïnes vertueuses
• La Sibylle Érythrée : un rôle féminin dans le théâtre médiéval et sa survivance dans la tradition à Majorque
• Une princesse dans le miroir : Marie de Bourgogne est-elle la dédicataire du Miroir des dames de Philippe de Bouton ?
• Heroes and Heroines from a Sienese Renaissance Palazzo
• L'image " politique " au féminin
• Question de goût, question de genre ? Commandes de sceaux royaux et princiers autour des reines Jeanne II de Bourgogne (1328-1349) et Jeanne II de Navarre (1329-1349)
• Perrinet du Pin et le mécénat de la duchesse de Savoie Anne de Lusignan : Le Roman de Philippe de Madien et les rêves orientaux d'une princesse chypriote
• Margaret of York, Colette of Corbie, and the Possibilities of Female Agency
• Parenté royale et livresque : une anthologie manuscrite dans la bibliothèque de Charlotte de Savoie (Paris, BnF fr. 2222)
• Theorizing Female Regency: Anne of France's Enseignements â sa fille
• Renée de France, spectatrice privilégiée de La Lena de Ludovic Arioste (1474-1533)
• Les femmes, la culture et les arts en Europe, entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance.

"Les articles de ce recueil traitent du mécénat bibliophilique, littéraire et artistique des femmes du Moyen Âge et de la Première Renaissance afin de préciser leur rôle dans la production écrite et iconographique, en contexte profane ou religieux. Qeelle fur leur influence comme commanditaires ? Des oeuvres littéraires furent-elles traduites ou remaniées pour transmettre un message plus spécifiquement féminin ? De même, jusqu'à quel point les images des manuscrits enluminés, des livres illustrés et des tableaux peints furent-elles transformées ? Les approches pluridisciplinaires présentées ici révèlent un phénomène de féminisation culturelle avec ses exigences et ses limites. Ainsi s'éclaire de façon novatrice et originale le caractère réel du mécénat féminin en Europe entre les mn' et XVe siècles. Women, Art and Culture in Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe The articles in this collection explore female patronage in literary, artistic and bibliophilie spheres from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance with the :Mn of becter defining women's roles in the =tuai and visual (re)produccion and transmission of secular and religions works. What was cheir influence as commissioners of these oeuvres? Were literary texts translated or revised with a female-oriented message in mind ? lb what extent were images in ilium inated manuscripts, illustrated books and paintings adapted to worneds interests? Bringing to light die phcnomcnon of cultural fimiinization, its conditions and constraints, the multidisciplinary approaches presented here elucidace in innovative and original fashion die real character of female patronage in Europe between the 13'' and l6'' centuries."--Page 4 of cover.

• Introduction Part I: PIONEERS 1.Gudrun Osvifsdottir: Viking Vixen
• 2. Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir: Fearless Explorer
• 3. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: First Woman Playwright
• 4. Anglo-Saxon and Norman Women: Political Power Dynasties and Steadfast Sovereigns Emma of Normandy-- St. Margaret of Scotland-- Matilda of Scotland
• 5. The Importance of Language Part II: FEARLESS FEMALES
• 6. St. Christina of Markyate: Resolute Virgin
• 7. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Cougar
• 8. Margaret of Beverley: Fighting Crusader Part III: WOMEN OF WISDOM
• 9. Anna Komnene: Dutiful Daughter
• 10. Understanding the Female Body: Misogyny and Sympathy
• 11. Trota of Salerno: Compassionate Physician
• 12. Hildegard von Bingen: Audacious Innovator
• 13. Heloise d'Argenteuil: Scandalous Nun
• 14. Marie de France: Rhyming Romancer Part IV: NON-CONFORMISTS
• 15. Women Troubadours/Trobairitz: Clever Composers
• 16. Marguerite Porete: Heroic Heretic
• 17. St. Birgitta of Sweden: Righteous Reformer
• 18. Margery Kempe: Peerless Pilgrim Part V: "MOST HONORED LADIES"
• 19. Christine de Pizan: Vocal Feminist
• 20. Joan of Arc: Savior of France
• 21. Textile Concerns: Holy Transvestites and the Dangers of Cross-Dressing Part VI: "EXPERIENCE IS RIGHT ENOUGH FOR ME"
• 22. Teresa de Cartagena: Foremother of Deaf Culture
• 23. Margaret Paston: Matchless Matriarch
• 24: Looking Forward: Contemporary Feminist Theory and Medieval Women Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Websites.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvellous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman's Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theatre, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficing and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalised due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women's accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction Part I: PIONEERS 1.Gudrun Osvifsdottir: Viking Vixen
• 2. Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir: Fearless Explorer
• 3. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: First Woman Playwright
• 4. Anglo-Saxon and Norman Women: Political Power Dynasties and Steadfast Sovereigns Emma of Normandy-- St. Margaret of Scotland-- Matilda of Scotland
• 5. The Importance of Language Part II: FEARLESS FEMALES
• 6. St. Christina of Markyate: Resolute Virgin
• 7. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Cougar
• 8. Margaret of Beverley: Fighting Crusader Part III: WOMEN OF WISDOM
• 9. Anna Komnene: Dutiful Daughter
• 10. Understanding the Female Body: Misogyny and Sympathy
• 11. Trota of Salerno: Compassionate Physician
• 12. Hildegard von Bingen: Audacious Innovator
• 13. Heloise d'Argenteuil: Scandalous Nun
• 14. Marie de France: Rhyming Romancer Part IV: NON-CONFORMISTS
• 15. Women Troubadours/Trobairitz: Clever Composers
• 16. Marguerite Porete: Heroic Heretic
• 17. St. Birgitta of Sweden: Righteous Reformer
• 18. Margery Kempe: Peerless Pilgrim Part V: "MOST HONORED LADIES"
• 19. Christine de Pizan: Vocal Feminist
• 20. Joan of Arc: Savior of France
• 21. Textile Concerns: Holy Transvestites and the Dangers of Cross-Dressing Part VI: "EXPERIENCE IS RIGHT ENOUGH FOR ME"
• 22. Teresa de Cartagena: Foremother of Deaf Culture
• 23. Margaret Paston: Matchless Matriarch
• 24: Looking Forward: Contemporary Feminist Theory and Medieval Women Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Websites.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvellous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman's Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theatre, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficing and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalised due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women's accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Was femininity in early Irish society perceived as weak and sinful, innately inferior to masculinity? Was it seen as powerful and dangerous, a threat to the peace and tranquility of male society? Or was there a more nuanced view, an understanding that femininity, or femininities, could be presented in a variety of ways according to the pragmatic concerns of the writer? This book examines the sources surviving from fifth- to ninth-century Ireland, aiming to offer a fresh view of authorial perceptions of the period. It seeks to highlight the complexities of those perceptions, the significance of authorial aims and purposes in the construction of femininity, and the potential disjunction between societal "reality" and the images presented to us in the sources. This careful analysis of a broad range of early Irish sources demonstrates how fluid constructions of gender could be, and presents a new interpretation of the position of femininity in the thought world of early Irish authors. Helen Oxenham worked at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge as supervisor and researcher on the Mapping Miracles project. She now works for The English Heritage Trust.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Machine generated contents note:
• 1. Islamic Heritage: A Background
• 2. Social Profile
• 3. Economic Milieu
• 4. Harem and Purdah
• 5. Political Platform
• 6. Cultural Context.

This book examines the economic, cultural, political and social positions of Muslim women in medieval India. It explores the changes that took place with the advent of Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Afghans and Persians whose customs and traditions influenced the existing Islamic society. Though Islam improved the position of women by instituting many reforms, the Islamic religious texts laid down the minutest code of conduct for women, the slightest deviation from which was considered irreligious. Such rigidity, coupled with the apathy of the ulemas, led to the weakening of position of women. The book goes on to show how the diktats of the Quran were subjected to many interpretations down the ages, affecting the status of women in various ways.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)