Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a
Unless otherwise noted, intellectual copyright in EMEE Anthology pages is held by
Early Modern England Encyclopedia
By Kate McPherson, inspired by
Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
This document uses Canadian English spelling
In tradesmen’s and other working families, women worked alongside their male relatives in the family’s business, and all master craftsmen were required to be married to obtain the rank. But at least twice weekly, most housewives in the middling and laboring classes also took produce to market to sell it. Whether the family was prosperous or poor, published books about household management from the period stress the economic importance of the housewife as a producer and manager of income and labor.
According to John Fitzherbert’s 1525
to go or ride to the market to sell butter, cheese, milk, eggs, capons.a male chicken fattened for eating , hens, pigs, geese, and all manner of corngrain of any kind, not maize . And also to buy all manner of necessary things belonging to a household
Women were actively involved in the productivity of the early modern English home. Under the housewife’s guidance vegetables were grown in the kitchen garden; woolen cloth and clothing, as well linen and hempen thread were spun and woven; dairy products including fresh milk, cheese, and butter were raised and stored safely; and malt was made from barley and other grains to help produce the beer and ale that were consumed by all household members. In addition, households raised poultry including chicken, ducks, and geese for meat, eggs, and feathers.
All these products were eaten or used by the household, but some were also sold in the markets, bringing in money from outside. This income was supplementary but important to working families.
During this period, a number of previously domestic activities managed by women began to shift to industries in the cities. Professional tradesmen took over some key tasks such as brewing beer, as well as making and dyeing cloth. This moved these trades out of cottages and small villages and into cities, where they were performed by men.
Some scholars such as Germaine Greer contend that Anne Shakespeare’s role as a brewer, which is documented in the city tax records in Stratford-upon-Avon, indicates her economic importance, while others trace the role of women in the brewing industry and how women’s earning power was displaced by men. Because households relied on
A married woman among common people was likely a close economic partner with her husband. This status was more pronounced outside of cities, where women’s labor was more central to the family’s earnings.
A wife’s social status was far above unmarried women in these parts of English society. Unmarried common women often worked as servants, whereas wives gained the responsibility for supervising female servants of the home in the kitchen, the dairy, the garden, the laundry, the buttery, or the nursery.
A wife’s status as a household manager, however, did not mean that women had equal social status or equal economic opportunity. Women could own property, but seldom inherited it from their fathers because it was more likely men would leave it to their sons. They could make contracts, but only when supervised by a man. Women’s economic status was related almost solely to the money or property they brought to a marriage (at which point most of it became the sole property of their husband) or to the work they did or products they made in the home.
_(style_of)_-_Tavern_Scene_-_622740_-_National_Trust.jpg){kind=link}