Women in Medieval Society / / Susan Mosher Stuard.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package Complete Collection
• HerausgeberIn: Stuard, Susan Mosher,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2012]; ©1976
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: The Middle Ages Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)

Early medieval women exercised public roles, rights, and responsibilities. Women contributed through their labor to the welfare of the community. Women played an important part in public affairs. They practiced birth control through abortion and infanticide. Women committed crimes and were indicted. They owned property and administered estates. The drive toward economic growth and expansion abroad rested on the capacity of women to staff and manage economic endeavors at home.In the later Middle Ages, the social position of women altered significantly, and the reasons why the role of women in society tended to become more restrictive are examined in these essays.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Land, Family, and Women in Continental Europe, 701-1200 -- Infanticide in the Early Middle Ages -- Women in Reconquest Castile: The Fueros of Sepulveda and Cuenca -- Marriage and Divorce in the Prankish Kingdom -- The Female Felon in Fourteenth- Century England -- Mulieres Sanctae -- Widow and Ward: The Feudal Law of Child Custody in Medieval England -- Dowries and Kinsmen in Early Renaissance Venice -- Women in Charter and Statute Law: Medieval Ragusa/Dubrovnik -- Selected Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index