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Our knowledge of the status and occupation of women in the Middle Ages comes mainly from sources our speaker, Tim Porter, explained as the earliest books written by women were about the beginning of the 14th Century.
It is believed that there were at least as many women, if not more, working alongside men for much of the period. The nature of a society which was both militaristic and religious saw men either having to leave home to fight or entering into religious life. That said , there were gender divisions, created by the situation of child rearing and the breaks which feeding and tending the needs of children.
Most of these tasks, "women's work", were centred around the hearth and could be interrupted without undue concern; tending the fire which required frequent refueling; cooking;drawing water; clothes washing; brewing; etc.
Men dominated the work situation in the type of society we have described - military and religious. The church was a man's world except for the small number of female religious houses, most of which had no stature nor power. Women were seen, and portrayed, as weak using the image of Eve succumbing to temptation and creating original sin.
This lower status of women was not always so sharp with some evidence that in Saxon England women had enjoyed a better position, a situation which appears to have declined as the period progressed. However, some religious writers of the later period did seem to have a less harsh view pointing out that Adam was made of clay while Eve sprang from Adam's rib.
Not all women were bound to domestic life. Many women went on pilgrimages. In Anglo-Saxon times it is possible that more pilgrims were women than men. Certainly in later centuries they are depicted in illustrations of pilgrim groups although now as a minority. At the same time some women did manage to gain a measure of independence, some setting up as sellers of beer. In most cases such independent ladies were widows who did not remarry.
The evening was rounded off by a slide show illustrating the main points of the substance of the talk using contemporary evidence; stained-glass windows; stone and wood carvings; manuscript illustrations.
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