The medieval era has been described as 'the Age of Chivalry' and 'the Age of Faith' but also as 'the Dark Ages'. Medieval women have often been viewed as subject to a punishing misogyny which limited their legal rights and economic activities, but some scholars have claimed they enjoyed a 'rough and ready equality' with men. The contrasting figures of Eve and the Virgin Mary loom over historians' interpretations of the period 1000-1500. Yet a wealth of recent historiography goes behind these conventional motifs, showing how medieval women's lives were shaped by status, age, life-stage, geography and religion as well as by gender.

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages presents essays on medieval women's life cycle, bodies and sexuality, religion and popular beliefs, medicine and disease, public and private realms, education and work, power, and artistic representation to illustrate the diversity of medieval women's lives and constructions of femininity.

Table of contents

A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages, Edited by Kim M. Phillips

• Introduction
• The Life Cycle: The Ages of Medieval Women, Cordelia Beattie, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Bodies and Sexuality, April Harper, SUNY Oneonta, USA
• Religion and Popular Beliefs: Choices, Constraints, and Creativity for Christian Women, Katherine L. French, SUNY New Paltz, USA
• Medicine and Disease: The Female 'Patient' in Medieval Europe, Iona McCleery, University of Leeds, UK
• Public and Private: Women in the Home, Women in the Streets, Kim M. Phillips, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Education and Work: Multiple Tasks and Lowly Status, Sandy Bardsley, Moravian College, USA
• Power: Medieval Women's Power through Authority, Autonomy, and Influence, Lois Huneycutt, University of Missouri, USA
• Artistic Representation: Women and/in Medieval Visual Culture, Marian Bleeke, Jennifer Borland, Rachel Dressler, Martha Easton and Elizabeth L'Estrange, The Medieval Feminist Art History Project, USA