While motherhood and marriage was the most common option it was by no means the only option available to women.
Women and the Church
Aside from marriage, the other main option for a woman was to become a nun. There were advantages to this, as nuns often learned to read and write, and they didn’t have to worry about dying in childbirth – a very real concern for medieval women.
There were also great spiritual rewards for nuns if they could keep their vows. St Jerome, a fourth century theologian, claimed that virgins would receive one hundred times their desserts in heaven, while chaste widows would receive sixty, and wives just thirty.
The flipside of this was that nuns who broke their vows were doomed to a dreadful eternity of suffering, as it was far worse to break a promise to God than to just sin.
Towards the end of the middle ages, convents became a dumping ground for unmarried daughters of aristocrats. Many convents would charge their initiates a large fee for the privilege of joining them, and they saw the new nuns as an opportunity to make money for the convent, so as a result, the poor couldn’t afford to become nuns, and if they weren’t married, their only real option was to help any married relations with their children.
Raising Children
All women, whether married or not, would be expected to help with the raising of children in their family, and to work. It was common for women to brew ale, and, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, to work in the textile industry as spinners, weavers or seamstresses.
Many women were also employed by wealthier families to work as cooks, servants, wet nurses or lady’s maids. It was a common practice for rich women to employ peasant women as wet nurses for their children, which some historians claim had the additional benefit of acting as a contraceptive for the poorer women, who couldn’t afford to raise a lot of children, while the rich women, who could afford them, had more children.
Women wouldn’t have been given any particularly strenuous work, however, as it was thought that this would damage their chances of having children. It was common for women to hold more than one job, as they were paid less than men.
Defending the Home
Noble women were also expected to help defend their husband’s estate if it was under attack. The most famous example of this was Lady Agnes Randolph, also known as ‘Black Agnes’. In 1338 while her husband was away from home, Edward III held Dunbar Castle under siege. Lady Agnes led the remaining household in defence of the castle and held off the attack for days, until eventually, King Edward was forced to withdraw.
Pam Griffin - Pam Griffin is a journalist working in Shropshire, UK. She is interested in first aid, singing and playing music, history, and ...
