How did women in the Middle Ages live — in cities, villages, and high castles? How were they expected to look, behave, and love? What did men want them to be, and what were they really like? Medieval historian Eleanor Yanega talks about the women of that time.

Medieval thinkers, almost always men, adhered to concepts composed of a mixture of classical ancient philosophy and Christian theology. They considered the mythical Helen of Troy, with her pear-shaped figure, small breasts, and golden hair, to be the pinnacle of feminine attractiveness. But in their contemporaries, who were shadowed by the Fall of Eve, they saw lustful sinners, insatiable and unbridled. A proper woman was expected to be a nun or the ideal embodiment of motherhood. Eleanor Yanega presents a very different image, drawing on the stories of outstanding medieval women—Eleanor of Aquitaine and Hildegard of Bingen—as well as other, lesser-known facts hidden in documents and court cases. This allows us to understand how women of that era lived: hardworking farmers, brewers, textile workers, artists, and artisans. They paved the way for new ideas about female nature, intelligence, and abilities.

Who is this book for?

For anyone interested in history in its unusual aspects.

For anyone fascinated by the Middle Ages.

For anyone interested in women's issues and relationships between men and women at different times.

From the author

If we want to understand how Western European society developed its current views on women, we need to trace the milestones of this path, starting from the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, we often perceive the history of this era as a collection of vague, if not completely useless knowledge. The term 'medieval' is often used as a synonym for 'backward,' 'primitive,' or 'barbaric,' as something from which we have already learned lessons, left in the distant past, outlived, and, as a result, ourselves have become better. The deeply ingrained belief that, if we peer into the depths of medieval history, we will find nothing new, discourages us from any interest in this field of knowledge. Meanwhile, not only is such an attitude wrong, but it is also one of the reasons that hinders our society’s movement towards equality and justice in the future.

Literally, “the Middle Ages” means “the middle times,” which covers a historical period of approximately 1,100 years, beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 and ending approximately in the 16th century, which occupies the gap between Antiquity and the Modern Age. In other words, the Middle Ages act as a kind of historical bridge between the ancient and modern worlds; they explain—or would explain, if we were to pay due attention to them—the path that human society has taken since Antiquity and how it arrived at its present state.

Because of the Middle Ages' position as a bridge between two eras, studying the gender norms of that historical period allows us to understand the origins of some of our current ideas about both sexes. Our belief that women are naturally weak and inferior creatures to men, and therefore in need of protection and guidance, is nothing more than a relic of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Once we understand this, we can ask ourselves why we still believe it.