Women in Early Britain, 1450-1640 (Social History in Perspective)

The history of women in Wales and Scotland is in a thriving infancy compared to England. This book draws on this work to examine the significance of contrasting social, economic and religious conditions in shaping the lives of women in Britain. Although gender assumptions were broadly similar, female experience varied. Changes in clanship and inheritance, the employment of single women, the punishment of pregnant brides and scolds, the introduction of Protestantism, and the fusion of fairy beliefs with ideas of demonological witchcraft all contributed to the diversity of women's lives in Britain.