What part did woman play in the day-to-day life of the Middle Ages? Everyone "knows" that most women spent their lives either as wives and mothers (whether as great ladies or filthy peasants) or as nuns within a convent. The truth, however, is somewhat more. Yes, most women were married for at least part of their lives. But for wives, as for widows, work was a constant necessity.

Most women of the lower and middle classes worked for most of their lives, beginning with childhood and continuing until old age or illness forced them to stop. The number of occupations held by women was large -- one list of occupations in the city of London recorded over 300 which had female practitioners. Carpenters, brewers, cordwainers, weavers, printers, and many other crafts admitted women to practice by one means or another. Often a woman whose husband was a Master of a professional guild, such as that of the carpenters, was granted the same rank as her husband. If he died, she would retain the right to bind apprentices and to run the business just as he would have for as long as she remained unmarried. If she remarried to another member of the Guild, she also retained her membership and rights. But if she married a non-member, most guilds would take away her rights of membership and the woman would not be allowed to practice her craft. This situation led, in many cases, to women who refused to remarry after being widowed, rather than to marry and lose the chance to practice their trade.

Another way for a woman to enter the working world was as an apprentice to a woman who practiced a trade. Women and girls were often mentioned in records of the time as apprentices for many different trades, such as seamstresses and hucksters. A woman who practiced her business as a "femme sole", or single woman (whether or not she was married), declared that her husband had no part in running of the business. She could, and did, take apprentices on her own. These were often girls whose fathers could not afford sufficient dowry to marry them well. Instead, the father would pay the somewhat smaller amount to place them as apprentices, and thus his daughter might have a chance at supporting herself or even attracting a husband with her skills.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the sight of a working woman was a common one. Although most of the Guilds had modified their charters by the sixteenth century to deny women membership, prior to that time they participated in many of the guilds as noted above. Even well into the Renaissance it is quite common to find mention of female merchants, as evidenced by one woman who was forced to sue the Crown. Her ship full of coal had been impounded by the authorities as the property of someone else; when she was able to prove ownership, it was released to her. A merchant who could boast of a full ship was definitely doing something right, and operating a business of some size!

All these avenues, and many more, were open to working-class women during the centuries covered by the S.C.A. Think of some of the varied choices open to you and you may discover that your persona has much more open to her than you ever dreamed of!