Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500

A very interesting discussion of women in medieval England which highlights not just the aristocracy, Abbesses and holy women in their positions of relative privilege, but by the use of court rolls, parish records, and other day-to-day documentation brings to light the lives of ordinary women. They were not just wives and mothers, but worked in many trades, had rights to their own land, and brought law-suits when their rights were impinged upon. They were more literate than I imagined - obviously a necessity when running a business, but also important for the many and complicated activities involved in maintaining a household - and had more say than I expected in marriages and separations. A very worthwhile book.

This sets out to look at how medieval women faced the world. Were they suppressed or were they living in a period of female emancipation. It turns out that the answer is neither yes or no. This books works its way through from the dark ages to the late medieval and discusses different themes through these different timeframes.
There is a lot of research and views expressed, not all of them present a clear cut picture, but it does suggest that there was a mixed picture and that the experience of women was not a simple one, as it isn't in the present age either.
It's interesting, scholarly without being too dry and full of lots of sources for future reading. The thing that I feel this books lacks is a summary chapter to balance the show more introduction show less

Henrietta Leyser considers the problems and attitudes fundamental to every woman of the time: medieval views on sex, marriage and motherhood; the world of work and the experience of widowhood for peasant, townswoman and aristocrat. The intellectual and spiritual worlds of medieval women are also explored. MEDIEVAL WOMEN celebrates the diversity and vitality of English women's lives in the Middle Ages.

"Based on an abundance of research from the last 25 years, Medieval Women celebrates the diversity and vitality of English women's lives in the Middle Ages."