1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458010503321

Autore

Bennett Judith M

Titolo

Ale, beer and brewsters in England [[electronic resource] ] : women's work in a changing world, 1300-1600 / / Judith M. Bennett

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Oxford University Press, 1996

ISBN

0-19-987944-3

1-280-52609-2

0-19-536079-6

1-4294-0114-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (277 p.)

Disciplina

331.4/86342/0942

Soggetti

Women brewers - England - History

Women - England - History - Middle Ages, 500-1500

Economic history - Medieval, 500-1500

Economic history - 16th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliography:  p. 237-250 and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; List of Abbreviations; A Brief Note on Conventions and Terms; ONE: Brewsters; TWO: When Women Brewed; THREE: New Markets, Lost Opportunities: Single women and Widows as Harbingers of Change; FOUR: Working Together: Wives and Husbands in the Brewers' Gild of London; FIVE: New Beer, Old Ale: Why Was Female to Male as Ale Was to Beer?; SIX: Gender Rules: Women and the Regulation of Brewing; SEVEN: These Things Must Be if We Sell Ale: Alewives in English Culture and Society; EIGHT: Women's Work in a Changing World; APPENDIX: Interpreting Presentments under the Assize of Ale; Notes

BibliographyIndex; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y

Sommario/riassunto

"Women brewed and sold most of the ale drunk in medieval England, but after 1350, men slowly took over the trade. By 1600, most brewers in London - as well as in many towns and villages - were male, not female. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England investigates this transition, asking how, when, and why brewing ceased to be a women's trade and



became a trade of men." "Drawing on a wide variety of sources - such as literary and artistic materials, court records, accounts, and administrative orders - Judith Bennett vividly describes how brewsters (that is, female brewers) slowly left the trade. She tells a story of commercial growth, gild formation, changing technologies, innovative regulations, and finally, enduring ideas that linked brewsters with drunkenness and disorder." "Examining this instance of seemingly dramatic change in women's status, Bennett argues that it included significant elements of continuity. Women might not have brewed in 1600 as often as they had in 1300, but they still worked predominantly in low-status, low-skilled, and poorly remunerated tasks. Using the experiences of brewsters to rewrite the history of women's work during the rise of capitalism, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England offers a telling story of the endurance of patriarchy in a time of dramatic economic change."