Women in England 1500-1760: A Social History

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 6; p. 103
• Main Author: Pacheo, Anita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.1995
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

In general, she sees few signs of progress and much evidence of a steady erosion of women's employment opportunities during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as the household ceased to be the centre of economic activity and the increasing sexual division of labour in town and countryside gradually excluded women from the most highly skilled and well-paid jobs. While Laurence's study of women in the workplace conveys the remarkable range of urban trades in which they were active throughout the period, it also makes clear that women worked chiefly as low-paid employees, most often in domestic service, which remained virtually the only occupation that guaranteed them a living wage. Laurence's discussion of marriage law, for example, is rather brief, and gives little indication that contemporary attitudes toward the pre-nuptial contract and bridal pregnancy are themselves historically contentious issues. [...]although her account of the numerous sexual defamation cases heard in the church courts points to the importance women attached to their sexual reputations, the chapter on female sexuality might usefully have explored this issue in greater depth, especially since recent research by Susan Amussen and Laura Gowing supports the view that reputation was a gendered concept in early modem England, and that women's moral nature, unlike men's, was defined almost entirely in terms of sexual chastity.