What did women do in the middle ages other than be housewives?

Question

What did women do in the middle ages other than be housewives?

Answer 1

made clothes,teachers,and mates

Answer 2

My ancestors were weavers and crofters:)

Answer 3

hired as help ie maids and nanny

in the peasantry they worked on farms

Answer 4

Well being a housewife was no easy task. Can you imagine not having a washing machine? How about fresh milk straight from the cow instead of the milk carton. Then there was cooking and raising children and scores of other everyday household chores. So to answer your question if they had to find other work to supplement their income some would find employment as a servant and being a servant was no better than being a housewife.If anything it was more of the same thing. We really don't know how lucky we are living in todays world with all our gadgets.

Answer 5

The term "housewife" really could not be applied during the Middle Ages due to the large number of responsibilities women had in society. Peasant women did perform most of the housework, such as cooking, cleaning, etc. However, they also helped their husbands in the fields and with any domesticated animals the family might own. She took care of the children and was primarily responsible for any education they might receive. She mended and made the family's clothing, did the wash in a nearby stream or river, plucked chickens, cleaned fish, and generally kept a vegetable garden.

Town women could have a career as a seamstress or spinner, work in her husband's shop as a clerk, or wash clothing for other families. A few women managed their own business and household, and were independently wealthy. Some women became nuns in the many convents during the Middle Ages.

Noble women were much less likely to perform any chores other than caring for their children to an extent.

Answer 6

Check out the work of Peter Breughel, an artist who painted the life of the peasants of what is now Belgium and the Netherlands.  It shows that women worked in the fields beside their men.

As for how difficult it was simply to be a housewife, consider how long it would take you if everything had to be produced locally and made from scratch without any electrical assistance.  How much time would you have left at the end of your day?

The lot of the peasant was harsh, but the lot of the peasant woman was unendingly wearisome.  Childbirth and chores destroyed their health young, and led to an average lifespan of about thirty.

Answer 7

Lower class women could be menial labourers such as peasant farm hands, particularly in animal husbandry (milking cows, collecting eggs, feeding chickens, etc.).  The church was a possibility, and many upper-class women became nuns.  Domestic work was a posibility, but limited.  Some women worked as bar maids, and many became prostitutes.  Marriage was the main fate for women in the Middle Ages.

Answer 8

well housewives in them days.............worked like slaves........

they had to grind the wheat to make the flour.........

then make all the bread daily...

find seeds berries etc to live.....

wash everything by hand........

sit & shut their mouth .....& sleep with the man even if they didnt want too......

life was not easy...........

even back in the 40-ies 50 ...it was hard work...........

they had to boil big coppers to wash the clothes

no washing machines or electric stoves unless ya were rich

cut wood for fires to cook meals ...so those poor things suffered too

we are spoilt rotten today!!!

Answer 9

In the larger 'cities', there were many whores

:l sad but true

Answer 10

Well, most women in those days did marry, but being a 'housewife' in those days was a very much more demanding job than it is now.  Most people in those days were at least partly self-sufficient, and the woman's role in production of food, clothing and other household items was vital.

A housewife would be expected to not just cook the food, but preserve food to last throught he winter (when very little fresh food was available).  Most people in those days lived in the country, and supported themselves by farming, and the farmer's wife would be in charge of the poultry and the dairy.  She would rear the poultry, milk the cows, and make her own butter and cheese.  She would sell her surplus chickens, eggs, butter and cheese at market. She would brew the ale which people drank instead of water.  Women would brew ale for their own home use, and also sell it.  Every village had two or three 'ale wives' who would sell their ale to the other villagers.

Housewives would also spend a good deal of their time spinning wool or flax into thread to be woven into clothing and bedding etc.  Often they would spin for their own home use and might sell the surplus thread to professional weavers.  girls would learn to spin at an early age so that they could help with this job.  Spinning was a common way for a woman to earn a living, in fact the word 'spinster' to denote an unmarried woman was still in common usage int he 20th century.  In medieval times, Christmas lasted for thirteen days, from Christmas Day until Epiphany (6th January).  The 7th January was known as St Distaff's Day, because it was the day women resumed spinning after the holidays.

Women would also make other household items like candles and soap.  Another important role of the housewife was to be the family doctor, since most people did not live within reach of a professional doctor and could not afford one even if they did.  Women were expected to have a good knowledge of medicine and first aid, and would make their own home remedies, the recipes for which would be passed on from mother to daughter.

The larger the household that the housewife presided over, the more people she would be responsible for.  An upper-class woman would be responsible for a good many servants and estate workers, and would be expected to run the estate in her husband's absence, she would have to have a good knowledge of estate business in addition to all her other skills.

Young women often worked as servants until they married, or they might be apprenticed to various different trades.  The textile trade employed a lot of women, as spinners, weavers, knitters, embroiderers, seamstresses etc.  Girls could be apprenticed to a variety of other trades, there are records of girls apprenticed to a great variety of businesses.  Being a midwife was an important job that a woman could do, the midwife would be an important figure in her local community.  There were some women doctors in medieval times, there are records of women physicians even attending kings.

Married women would normally be involved in whatever business their husbands were engaged in, and some married women were often in business on their own account.

Some upper-class women became nuns, and in nunneries they might attain a high standard of education.  Before the invention of the printing press, books had to be copied out by hand, and thi swas a job that was often done by nuns. Some medieval nuns became well-known scholars and philosophers, like Hildgegarde of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and Catherine of Sienna for instance.  There were some well-known women writers who were not nuns, like the poet Marie de France for example, and Christine de Pisan, who is the first European woman known to have earned her living as a professional writer.