Medieval Women and Work in the Cities of Northwestern Europe

I mentioned in my post on beguines that they did any and all work open to urban women from the 12th to 14th centuries.  But what kind of work was that?  In the cities of northwestern Europe, the answer to that question is actually “a lot of different things,” at least until opportunities became more restricted in the late 14th century.

Shops out front, living quarters behind and above.
[Image drawn by Robert Waterhouse, scanned from Jane Grenville's Medieval Housing]

Middle class women, particularly those in the Low Countries, did not usually marry until they were in their mid-20s.  By this point they were considered not only to be able to run a household, but also to contribute to the family income.  I mentioned elsewhere that this particularly applied to women in craft households, which formed the bulk of the middle class at this time.  Many women worked at the same trades as their husbands and fathers.  Others had their own trades, sometimes without the involvement of a spouse.  In particular, married women dominated brewing industry.*  Records also show women working as chandlers, butchers, leatherworkers, bakers, glass grinders, and milliners, to name a few.  Those women not involved in trade were quite frequently teachers in Elementary schools or in one of the few schools for higher education open to girls.

Is that one cow laughing at the other two?  Probably not, but it's fun to imagine.
["Cowherds with their cows," Queen Mary Psalter, c. 1320]
[scanned from David Herlihy's Opera Muliebria]

Women of lower socio-economic status also had some variety in the jobs open to them.  Many women went into domestic service, as did many men.  Some had a certain amount of skill in a particular craft and sold their work by the day to masters in that guild.  Many women held low-paying jobs as hospital workers or within the textile industry.  Still others worked as shop assistants, peddlers, barmaids and tapsters, and even animal herders.

Cooking?  Or Brewing?  I've actually seen this image labeled both ways.
["Kuchenmaistrey," 1505, Johannes Fischauer, Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Finally, I want to point out that some women never did any of this.  Running one’s own household (which, by the way, sometimes included managing both the household finances and the shop finances) was considered work, just as much as working at a craft or for a wage.


*Household inventories from northern Germany in particular show that the equipment necessary for brewing beer was common in houses where the head of household held some other occupation.  This isn’t the only evidence, but if you ask me, it’s some of the most interesting.

Further Reading (or in this case, here, have a book list):

-The Household in Late Medieval Cities: Italy and Northwestern Europe Compared, Edited by Myriam Carlier and Tim Soens, 2001 (Note: About a third to half of this book is written in French.  The rest is in English.)

-Medieval Households, David Herlihy, 1985

-Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe, David Herlihy, 2001

-Medieval Housing, Jane Grenville, 1997

-Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages, Edited by Mary C. Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski, 2003