![]() ![]() Women with children participated in nearly every economic aspect of medieval life. The medieval church was a major economic enterprise, and the Abbess of a large convent was a force to be reckoned with.įor the other 90% of women, childbirth and childcare figured largely into the equation, but that didn’t prevent them from working at all, especially when you consider… Most businesses were family-owned. Female writers, artists, and religious scholars were nurtured by the church, as well as botanists, healers, and educators. Nearly 10% of women in medieval France and England never married, and ‘marriage to the church’ provided many of them with a livelihood and education not otherwise available. In addition to those with genuine religious callings, convents provided a refuge for female non-conformists and intellectuals. If your female character’s time is not taken up largely by the continuation of the species, there must be a specific reason. ![]() But remember when populating your fantasy world that those were exceptions. The infertile, the post-menopausal, the celibate, and those wealthy enough to rely exclusively on wet nurses, were all free to pursue professional callings. But of course… There Were Exceptions to the Rule One need only ask a modern stay-at-home parent how much else they get done during the day, and remember that before infant formula (1950s) that parent had to be the mother, as she was the only one who could feed the child. Before that, the work a woman took on was often limited by what she could do while pregnant or with a nursing infant in tow. Suddenly, they could choose not to reproduce. In addition to the difficulty of childbirth itself, it’s important to remember that birth control (1960s) made a huge difference in the lives of women. And any mother will tell you it’s still no cakewalk. Thanks to modern medicine, childbirth today has drastically lower chances of infection and hemorrhaging, not to mention those lovely painkillers. Then ask them how it would have gone without an epidural. The first thing to consider is… Childbirth is really, really, hard.Īsk your mother. To help you extrapolate the role of women in your fantasy world, this article aims to give you a fundamental understanding of the reasons why things often panned out as they did. So, aside from popping out babies, what exactly did women… do? As with all things fantasy, an author doesn’t need to stick strictly to history, but a bit of logic in your world-building goes a long way. Sometimes it seems like those are the only female archetypes in medieval fantasy, unless you’ve got a chain-mail-bikini clad female ‘warriors’ wielding a sword that weighs more than she does. He’s currently freelance editing and operating a bnb in Manhattan where he hosts the New York Scribbers Weekly Writing Session. He’s also the editorial administrator of the Ubergroup on, “the most productive writer’s group on the internet,” where he herds around 200 cats writers and preaches the dramatic principles of Lajos Egri. He’s spent a dozen years performing at Renaissance Faire, where he’s learned both how to pick up a prostitute in Shakespearean English and when it’s okay to let go of obsessive historical accuracy for the sake of making sense to the audience. Jerry Quinn is a classical actor and history buff with a special interest in 10th-12th century Normandy. ![]()
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