Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe (New Perspectives on European History)

In Opera Muliebria--from the medieval Latin term for "women's labors"--original sources are imaginatively examined, and used to trace women's involvement in productive activities throughout Europe--from late Antiquity through the middle ages. The author explains the diminishing social and professional role women played as the middle ages closed. Clear, chronological divisions of medieval history relate women and work to the broader movements of social and political change, in an engaging, clear narrative style. This brief original work highlights women in the textile industry, agriculture, education, and medicine.