Urban Women
Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries
Chanelle Delameillieure author Jelle Haemers author Andrea Bardyn author Chanelle Delameillieure editor Jelle Haemers editor Andrea Bardyn editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Leuven University Press
Published:30th Apr '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Exploring women's stories of work, protest, and power in the medieval Low Countries
The Middle Ages—a time often cast as a dark period when violence reigned and men dominated society. Women, as the deeply rooted cliché would have it, played scarcely any part. But this book tells a different story, one in which women step forward as the main characters. In the southern Low Countries, townswomen held substantial rights, which they used to conduct business, voice their opinions, and assert their will.
Urban Women presents a different and lesser-known image of the late Middle Ages, from 1250 to 1550. The authors trace the lives of women protesting, marrying, making love, working, and engaging in the daily life of Low Countries towns. In doing so, this book gives voice to wealthy businesswomen, laborers, religious women, criminals, and sex workers, spotlighting the remarkable figures who shaped a “women’s town” within a man’s world.
As sociologist Alison Woodward aptly observed, ‘everyone is anonymous in a town, except for a woman. She is always seen, always treated as…a woman’. Historical analysis can therefore illuminate how this complex relationship between women and urban life emerged and evolved over time. It is precisely in this regard that the volume under review makes a valuable contribution. - Lisa Demets, Journal of Medieval History, 52(1), 150–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2026.2613226
Depuis plusieurs décennies, l’histoire des femmes au Moyen Âge connaît un essor considérable. Si ces recherches ont permis de réévaluer leur place dans la société médiévale, elles se sont longtemps concentrées sur les figures les plus en vue – reines, duchesses ou saintes – dont les trajectoires exceptionnelles reflètent des expériences marginales plutôt que représentatives. L’ouvrage recensé s’inscrit dans la continuité de cet intérêt, mais en renouvelle les perspectives. Son ambition est claire : déplacer le regard vers les oubliées de l’historiographie. Les femmes qui y sont étudiées appartiennent à un entre-deux social : ni nobles, ni issues des couches les plus modestes, elles bénéficiaient d’une certaine aisance et d’un petit prestige qui leur permettaient de vivre – et de faire vivre les villes dans lesquelles elles évoluaient. - Ninon Gavage, Moyen Âge, 131 (2025/3-4), https://shs.cairn.info/revue-le-moyen-age-2025-3-page-1101?lang=fr
ISBN: 9789462704497
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
232 pages