Women In Medieval Times

History show that women made a very significant contribution to the economy during the medieval period. Most of the literary text published does not give an accurate accounting of medieval women besides their man jobs as being wives, bearing children and, depending on their social class, being gossips’ taking care of other people’s children. Most of the literary text also talks mainly about the oppression and inequality women dealt with. Social class, marital status and the time and placed that they lived contribute to what the everyday life of a women in the medieval period would consist of. Not all women were to be confined to life in the home. Middle class women in particular were more hands on. They were not only expected to maintain their
The first was the Black Death. Due to the fact that there wer so many people dying during the plague years there was a mass labor shortage. People that were healthy and could work to help keep the production of beer going were in such demand and people would pay anything to have healthy laborers. Studies in the past shows that women were making substantially less than men. For instance, "women as day laborers by contract...earned salaries usually about half of what men earned" (Epstein, 1991, p.118). The Black Death made this even worse for women. No longer on subsistence wages, a huge portion of disposable income was spent on this production of beer. After that the social landscape of the country changed. The other factor that had a big influence on the consumption and manufacture of beer was the Hundred Years War. Which was fought between England and France. Soldiers received a daily ration of eight pints of beer during this time. With there being such a huge demand by the military there was now a secure and reliable supply required to insure the production would be consistent. Women brewing in the home could not provide enough beer. This lead to the creation of brewing beer on a large scale in factories, also known as breweries. Although most property belonged to men, certain laws and regulations stated that the tools used to brew belonged to women. Women did not usually work outside the home, and they were not permitted to own their own property because during the medieval period in a marriage it belonged to their husband. With the property belonging to men and a decline in women needed to brew women were back to being subservient to me. They also could not take out bank loans so they could not own their own breweries. This was the start of the decline in females being the primary brewers. Between