Medieval Women

By Eileen Power,

Book cover of Medieval Women

Book description

Throughout her career as a medieval historian, Eileen Power was engaged on a book about women in the Middle Ages. She did not live to write the book but some of the material she collected found its way into her popular lectures on medieval women. These lectures were brought together…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Medieval Women as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Eileen Power was a pioneer in Women’s History and this was the first book I read when I went back to university. It’s an inspiring collection of essays on medieval ideas of women, working women in town and country, education, and nunneries. If you’re planning to write a book about women in the Middle Ages, start your research here.

Power refers to many diverse contemporary texts such as The Goodman of Paris and works by Chaucer and Christine de Pisan, which enabled me (or, which will enable you) to portray authentic detail in my own book. The essay on nunneries,…

I love this book because of its contents and the history of the author. Eileen Power was a foremother as a historian of the Middle Ages and medieval women. This book is a posthumous collection of essays that brilliantly lay out the ways in which the medieval world thought about women, and then the outlines of the lives of elite women, working women (both urban women such as silk workers, and peasant women), women’s education, and women in convents. Power modeled lively, creative scholarship, taking the first steps that many later scholars of medieval women would follow.

From Miriam's list on medieval women’s history.

Want books like Medieval Women?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Medieval Women.

Browse books like Medieval Women

Book cover of Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100-1300
Book cover of Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, Ca. 500-1100
Book cover of The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Medieval West

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,223

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Middle Ages, Europe, and women?

The Middle Ages 431 books
Europe 956 books
Women 649 books