- Department: History
- Module co-ordinator: Dr. Elizabeth Spencer
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
What was life like for women in eighteenth-century England? Did they live a restricted existence controlled by fathers, masters, and husbands, or did they in fact exercise more agency than this in their day-to-day lives? These are the questions we will explore in this module as we move through some of the different stages in an adult woman’s life cycle, including marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, spinsterhood, and death. We will think about how different women experienced these stages, as well as what was expected of them by wider society. By doing so we will consider not just the importance of gender, but also the impact of socio-economic position on women’s lives, as we hear from individuals ranging from poor unwed servants to ladies at the head of their own household.
Women’s voices – and those of poorer women in particular – are often difficult to find, and we will therefore look across a range of sources in order to recover them. In addition to letters and diaries, we will consider some more unfamiliar sources like court records, ballads, wills, ‘how-to’ manuals, and printed images. The eighteenth century was a period in which a growing body of conduct literature stressed that women should be frugal, modest, and subject to the authority of men, but by exploring these different sources we will build up a richer and more complex picture of their everyday lives and experiences.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Teaching Programme:
Teaching will be in weekly 2-hour seminars taught over nine weeks, plus an overview and revision session in Week 2 of Summer Term. Each week students will do reading and preparation in order to be able to contribute to discussion.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Introduction: Women and the life cycle
Women in service
Marriage and the household
Women, crime, and the courts
Menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth
Spinsterhood
Women in business
Women and textiles
Death: Understanding probate records
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Maids & Mistresses, Wives & Widows |
8 hours | 100 |
None
Formative work:
During the Spring Term students will prepare a presentation in pairs or small groups. Tutors will determine the formative work for the course: all groups will present on a primary source. Formative work will be completed in one or more sessions at the tutor’s discretion.
Summative assessment:
An open exam in the Common Assessment Period, comprising one essay question chosen from five options
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Maids & Mistresses, Wives & Widows |
8 hours | 100 |
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their discussion groups and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their procedural work with their tutor (or module convenor) during student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s lives in Georgian England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999.
Barker, Hannah, and Elaine Chalus, eds. Women’s History: Britain, 1700-1850. An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2005.