What is gender?
Social construction of masculinity and femininity - we are born biologically male and female, but socialised to become men and women

medieval culture tended to naturalise gender difference
        eg women spin (Adam delved, Eve span)
        scriptural authority
                husbands have authority over wives
                men can hold office, not women

Lecture will explore gender in peasant society in context of family and work:

The peasant family

household - hierarchy
'head' of household - often male, invariably married (or widowed), invariably adult
dependents - wife, children, servants
        tax listings etc. show hierarchy of head, wife, male children, female children, male servants, female
        servants

different kinds of household:
nuclear - v. common especially in N.W. Europe after Black Death
        encourages children to leave and make own way
        may use servant / hired labour in place of family labour
        places much emphasis on partnership of husband and wife
extended / stem-family - one son allowed to marry and bring spouse to live in natal home - other
        siblings allowed to stay, but only if remain single
        common particularly in Southern / Mediterranean Europe
        associated with tight control over family home / land from generation to generation
        makes particular use of family labour (and perhaps male labour)
complex - eg zadruga of Balkan region

Marriage
nuclear households formed when a couple marry
        often associated with late companionate marriage (?early twenties, man only slightly older than wife)
        poorer peasants allowed some initiative in courtship? more controlled for more well-to-do
in Southern Europe much greater emphasis on honour (for women = virginity) and fathers pay dowry, so
        marriage of women much more controlled by fathers (or brothers / male kin)
        men marry late (later 20s) to teenage women

Work

problem of documenting work - waged work recorded, peasants working for themselves not
childrearing invariably ignored in scholarship

gender division of labour?
Men plough and mow (uses scythe)
Women associated with dairy, poultry, weeding
BUT no absolute patterns

Judith Bennett - women's work low skilled, low status - but skill is a loaded concept

Clearest statement by Barbara Hanawalt - gender division of labour on spatial lines
        men work in fields and forests, women in and around home
        problematic use of coroners' rolls relating to accidental deaths - only tells us about hazardous work
        activities - actually more complex picture (cf Martine Segalen)

Importance of husband and wife partnership in nuclear household system
Women more visible in records in NW Europe (greater use of / participation in waged work)

A gendered society?
peasant society more conservative than urban
women less valued in S. Europe (evidence for abandonment of babies, neglect of female children)
Some males enjoyed status and solidarity as householders, office holders etc., but others marginalised
Women might form own networks / solidaties (eg fundraising for parish church)

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