WOMEN IN CHRISTIAN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

MARRIAGE AND PREGNANCY• Most women married and had children• They could expect to have many children and

perhaps half of them would die.• As well as being pregnant a lot of the time and

bringing up children, they run the home.• Even though, they were not allowed to take their

own decisions

FARMING• Most people lived by farming.• Women’s work included looking after the hens

and ducks, and often the pigs• Women ran the dairies, and frequently did the

milking as well as making butter and cheese.• In the summer everyone helped with the

harvesting, and in the autumn with slaughtering of animals.

NUNS• A few women did not marry.• Some went into nunneries because they want to

or because their families wished them to. • Many found fulfiling lives because of religion

itself and because the way of life gave them scope to organise and run things such as hospitals in their own right. Besides, they were able to write and read