Gender and Medieval History

1. Gender and Medieval History

2. Gender and Commerce • Intro • Martha Howell, “The Gender of Europe’s Commercial Economy” • Gendered understanding of redemption of commercial life

3. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • An illegitimate pursuit

4. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • An illegitimate pursuit • Commerce was “morally hazardous. No one becomes inflamed by greed like the merchant, whose very occupation is centred on wealth and on the daily opportunity to augment his property ...In order to make a profit, the merchant is tempted to cheat on weights and measures, to hide defects in his wares, to swear falsely about their qualities, etc.”

5. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • An illegitimate pursuit • Morally hazardous • Bans on usury • In Need of Redemption

6. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • Removal of Women from Market Production • More prominent role in beginning of Middle Ages

7. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • Removal of Women from Market Production • More prominent role in beginning of Middle Ages • Gradual Exclusion from Market Production • Guild Restrictions

8. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • Removal of Women from Market Production • More prominent role in beginning of Middle Ages • Gradual Exclusion from Market Production • Guild Restrictions • Popular Culture Images

9. Phyllis and Aristotle

10. Gender and Commerce • Intro • The Evils of Commerce • Removal of Women from Market Production • More prominent role in beginning of Middle Ages • Gradual Exclusion from Market Production • Guild Restrictions • Popular Culture Images • An uneven retreat

11. Gender and Commerce • Gendered Attempt to Redeem Consumption • Critiques of Consumption • Women as Responsible Managers of Consumption

12. Gender and Commerce • Gendered Attempt to Redeem Consumption • Gendered Attempt to Redeem Production/ Money-Making • Commerce is evil when “underground” • Fiction/Plays • Lawmakers • Academics: “Just Price” • Merchant as Male Hero

13. Gender and Commerce • Gendered Attempt to Redeem Consumption • Gendered Attempt to Redeem Production/ Money-Making • Conclusion • Commerce becomes accepted • Why? • Gendered Ideals for responsible Production/Consumption

14. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A male pursuit • Evidence in the Sources

15. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A Change in Attitudes • Legislation and Ridicule • Around 12th/13th, more criticism of woman warriors in sources

16. Excerpt from “History of the Danes” There were once women in Denmark who dressed themselves to look like men and spent almost every minute cultivating soldier's skills; they did not want the sinews of their valor to lose tautness and be infected by self-indulgence. Loathing a dainty style of living, they would harden body and mind with toil and endurance, rejecting the fickle pliancy of girls and compelling their womanish spirits to act with a virile ruthlessness. They courted military celebrity so earnestly that you would have guessed they unsexed themselves. Those especially who had forceful personalities or were tall and elegant embarked on this way of life. As if they were forgetful of their true selves, they put toughness before allure, aimed at conflicts instead of kisses, tasted blood- not lips, sought the clash of arms rather than the arm's embrace, fitted to weapons hands which should have been weaving, desired not the couch but the kill, and those they could have appeased with looks they attack with lances

17. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A Change in Attitudes • Legislation, ridicule, charges of immorality • Around 12th/13th, more criticism of woman warriors in sources • Why? Increased Attention to Role Definition

18. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A Change in Attitudes • Decline of the Woman Warrior • Attitude Change not enough • By LMA, few references…

19. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A Change in Attitudes • Decline of the Woman Warrior • Attitude Change not enough • By LMA, few references… • Why? Warfare goes from Domestic to Public Sphere • Feudal warfare as domestic • Women part of domestic sphere • Changes in Warfare

20. The Woman Warrior • Woman Warriors in Medieval Society • A Change in Attitudes • Decline of the Woman Warrior • Attitude Change not enough • By LMA, few references… • Why? Warfare goes from Domestic to Public Sphere • Summary