10 Jobs Medieval Women Did That History Forgot

You walk down the main street of an English market town in the 1300s. A pole hangs over a doorway, steam rises from a tub in a yard, and a girl sits on a step with a spindle at her knee. Most of what you just passed was women's work. This is a countdown of ten jobs medieval women did that the record barely names. It starts with the laundress and her tub of lye, then the wet nurse in a rich Florentine house, then the brewster fined at every manor court. Each entry shows what the day looked like, what it paid and how it could hurt or kill the woman doing it. The list also covers the midwife, the silkwomen who petitioned Parliament, the embroiderers, the harvest woman, the widow who ran her husband's business, and the spinster. Along the way it asks one question: why did work this necessary go so quiet? The answer is in the words you still use: laundry, midwife, distaff side, spinster, and surnames like Brewster, Webster and Baxter. If there's a trade hidden in your own family name, tell us which one in the comments.