Working Women in English Society, 1300 1620

List of illustrations ix List of maps, tables, and figures xi Acknowledgments xii Notes on the text xiii List of abbreviations xiv Part I. Introduction: women and their work Women's work in its social setting 3(11) Studying working women 14(31) Sources: what information is available? 14(14) The historiographic context: how have scholars interpreted the sources? 28(9) Continuity and change 37(8) Part II. Providing services Domestic and personal services 45(40) Live-in servants 46(15) Taking in boarders 61(11) Non-residential household employment, sex work, and health care 72(13) Financial services and real estate 85(34) Women and financial credit 85(13) Lending money 98(9) Pawning goods 107(7) Renting out property 114(5) Part III. Making and selling goods General features of women's work as producers and sellers 119(21) Characteristics of production and sale 120(13) Apprenticeship 133(7) Drink work 140(42) Brewing ale 145(11) Aleselling 156(7) Beer, wine, and taverns 163(7) A historical puzzle: were women displaced from the drink trades around 1500? 170(12) The food trades and innkeeping 182(28) Baking 182(8) Other foods 190(12) Innkeeping 202(8) Women's participation in the skilled crafts 210(29) Cloth and clothing 210(24) Other crafts 234(5) Turning the coin: women as consumers 239(11) Conclusion 250(4) Appendices 254(18) Bibliography 272(16) Index 288