Download or read book The Defiant Middle written by Kaya Oakes and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For every woman, from the young to those in midlife and beyond, who has ever been told, "You can't" and thought, "Oh, I definitely will!"--this book is for you. Women are expected to be many things. They should be young enough, but not too young; old enough, but not too old; creative, but not crazy; passionate, but not angry. They should be fertile and feminine and self-reliant, not barren or butch or solitary. Women, in other words, are caught between social expectations and a much more complicated reality. Women who don't fit in, whether during life transitions or because of changes in their body, mind, or gender identity, are carving out new ways of being in and remaking the world. But this is nothing new: they have been doing so for thousands of years, often at the margins of the same religious traditions and cultures that created these limited ways of being for women in the first place. In The Defiant Middle, Kaya Oakes draws on the wisdom of women mystics and explores how transitional eras or living in marginalized female identities can be both spiritually challenging and wonderfully freeing, ultimately resulting in a reinvented way of seeing the world and changing it. "Change, after all," Oakes writes, "always comes from the margins."

Download or read book Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages written by Vicki León and published by Wiley. This book was released on 1998-03-04 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some were feisty and fiery. Others were cool and dangerous. All were incredibly courageous. Outrageous Women of The Middle Ages took on the challenge of their world--and didn't worry about ruffling a few feathers. Among the outrageous women you'll meet are: * Eleanor of Aquitaine--queen of France and later England, she led a group of women on the Second Crusade and created her own financial system * Lady Murasaki Shikibu--besides being a wife and mother, she learned the "forbidden" language of Chinese and wrote the world's first novel * Aud the Deep-Minded--a Viking wise woman and explorer who led her clan, grandchildren and all, on a risky voyage from Scotland to Iceland * Hildegarde of Bingen--the German nun who, late in life, became a composer, a botanist, and founded convents * Damia al-Kahina--a nomadic freedom fighter, skilled at peacemaking and war, who kept her North African homeland free

Download or read book Same Bodies Different Women written by Christopher Mielke and published by Trivent Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of essays focusing on marginalized women mostly in Central and Eastern Europe from around 1350 to 1650. "Other" women are discussed in three different categories: women whose religious practices put them on the social margins, "common women" who are in society but not of society because they are in the sex trade, and women whose occupations were reason enough to shunt them. In order to fill a gap in gender history for countries east of the Rhine River, the studies included present how official city-funded brothels in medieval Austria worked, how a princess' disability affected her life as Byzantine empress, how one unmarried Transylvanian woman who got pregnant dealt with being the center of a court case, and how enslaved women in medieval Hungary were treated as sexual property. The hope with this volume is that it will show the many interdisciplinary ways that women on the margins can be studied in this region, and to diminish the taboo of discussing this topic to begin with.

Download or read book Women and Power in the Middle Ages written by Mary Erler and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

Download or read book Women in Medieval Society written by Susan Mosher Stuard and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early medieval women exercised public roles, rights, and responsibilities. Women contributed through their labor to the welfare of the community. Women played an important part in public affairs. They practiced birth control through abortion and infanticide. Women committed crimes and were indicted. They owned property and administered estates. The drive toward economic growth and expansion abroad rested on the capacity of women to staff and manage economic endeavors at home. In the later Middle Ages, the social position of women altered significantly, and the reasons why the role of women in society tended to become more restrictive are examined in these essays.

Download or read book Women s Lives written by Nahir I. Otaño Gracia and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on a variety of medieval women, which will grant readers a more complete view of medieval women’s lives broadly speaking. These essays largely take a new perspective on their subjects, pushing readers to reconsider preconceived notions about medieval women, authority, and geography. This book will expand the knowledge base of our readers by introducing them to non-canonical and non-European subjects.

Download or read book Women Intellectuals and Leaders in the Middle Ages written by K. A. Bugyis and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wide-ranging examination of women's achievements in and influence on many aspects of medieval culture.

Download or read book A Medieval Woman s Companion written by Susan Signe Morrison and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvelous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman’s Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theater, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficking and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalized due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women’s accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.

Download or read book The Representations of Women in the Middle Kingdom Tombs of Officials written by Ľubica Hudáková and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-07-22 with total page 770 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Representations of Women in the Middle Kingdom Tombs of Officials Lubica Hudáková offers an in-depth analysis of female iconography in the decorative programme of Middle Kingdom non-royal tombs, highlighting changes and innovations in comparison to the Old Kingdom. Previously considered too uniform, the study represents the first systematic investigation of two-dimensional images of women and reveals their variability in space and time. Hudáková examines the roles appointed to women by analyzing how they are depicted in a variety of contexts. Taking into account their postures, gestures, garments, hairstyles, size of the body, age as well as attributes and tools used by them, along with the scene orientation, she traces diachronic and diatopic developments and regional traditions in the Middle Kingdom tomb decoration"--

Download or read book Women s Roles in the Middle Ages written by Sandy Bardsley and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 2007-06-30 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information about women in this truly fascinating period from 500 to 1500 is in great demand and has been a challenge for historians to uncover. Bardsley has mined a wide range of primary sources, from noblewomen's writing, court rolls, chivalric literature, laws and legal documents, to archeology and artwork. This fresh survey provides readers with an excellent understanding of how women high and low fared in terms of religion, work, family, law, culture, and politics and public life. Even though medieval women were divided by social class, religion, age, marital status, place and period, they were all subject to an overarching patriarchal structure and sometimes could transcend their inferior status. Numerous examples of these exceptional women and their words are included. Chapter 1 examines religion, focusing on women's roles in the early Christian church, the lives of nuns and other professional religious women such as anchoresses and Beguines, the participation of Christian laywomen, and the experiences of Jewish and Islamic women in Western Europe. The second chapter examines women's work, looking in turn at the kinds of work performed by peasant women, townswomen, and noblewomen. Women's roles within the family form the subject of the third chapter. This chapter follows women throughout the typical lifecycle - from girl to widow - examining the expectations and experiences of women at each stage. Chapter 4, Women and the Law, focuses on the ways in which laws both restricted and protected women. It also considers the crimes with which women were most often charged and surveys laws regarding marriage and widowhood. Women's roles in creative arts form the basis of the fifth chapter, Women and Culture. This chapter examines women's roles as artists, authors, composers, and patrons, as well as investigating the ways in which women were represented in works produced by men. Finally, chapter 6 discusses women's experiences in politics and public life. While women as a group were typically banned from holding positions of public authority, some found ways to get around this stricture, while others were able to exercise power behind the scenes. The final chapter thus encapsulates a major theme of this book: the interplay between broader patriarchal forces that limited women's status and autonomy and the role of individuals who were able to overcome or circumvent such forces. Medieval women were, as a group, subordinate to their husbands and fathers, but certain women, under certain circumstances, evaded subordination.

Download or read book Women in Middle Eastern History written by Nikki R. Keddie and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of Middle Eastern women is the first to survey gender relations in the Middle East from the earliest Islamic period to the present. Outstanding scholars analyze a rich array of sources ranging from histories, biographical dictionaries, law books, prescriptive treatises, and archival records, to the Traditions (hadith) of the Prophet and imaginative works like the Thousand and One Nights, to modern writings by Middle Eastern women and by Western writers. They show that gender boundaries in the Middle East have been neither fixed nor immutable: changes in family patterns, religious rituals, socio-economic necessity, myth and ideology—and not least, women’s attitudes—have expanded or circumscribed women’s roles and behavior through the ages.

Download or read book Wandering Women and Holy Matrons written by Leigh Ann Craig and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-03-16 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores women’s experiences of pilgrimage in Latin Christendom between 1300 and 1500 C.E. Later medieval authors harbored grave doubts about women’s mobility; literary images of mobile women commonly accused them of lust, pride, greed, and deceit. Yet real women commonly engaged in pilgrimage in a variety of forms, both physical and spiritual, voluntary and compulsory, and to locations nearby and distant. Acting within both practical and social constraints, such women helped to construct more positive interpretations of their desire to travel and of their experiences as pilgrims. Regardless of how their travel was interpreted, those women who succeeded in becoming pilgrims offer us a rare glimpse of ordinary women taking on extraordinary religious and social authority.

Download or read book A Glorious Freedom written by Lisa Congdon and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The remarkable women celebrated in [this] vibrantly illustrated collection . . . offer stirring words of encouragement to any woman, of any age” (Booklist). The glory of growing older is the freedom to be more truly ourselves. With age we gain the confidence to pursue bold new endeavors and worry less about what other people think. In this richly illustrated volume, bestselling author and artist Lisa Congdon explores the power of women over the age of forty who are thriving and living life on their own terms. A Glorious Freedom includes profiles, interviews, and essays from women such as Vera Wang, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Julia Child, Cheryl Strayed, and many others who have found creative fulfillment and accomplished great things in the second half of their lives. Each section is lavishly illustrated and hand-lettered in Congdon's signature style.

Download or read book Confidence Men and Painted Women written by Karen Halttunen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1982-01-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karen Halttunen draws a vivid picture of the social and cultural development of the upwardly mobile middle class, basing her study on a survey of the conduct manuals and fashion magazines of mid-nineteenth-century America. "An ingenious book: original, inventive, resourceful, and exciting. ... This book adds immeasurably to the current work on sentimental culture and American cultural history and brings to its task an inquisitive, fresh, and intelligent perspective. ... Essential reading for historians, literary critics, feminists, and cultural commentators who wish to study mid-nineteenth-century American culture and its relation to contemporary values."--Dianne F. Sadoff, American Quarterly "A compelling and beautifully developed study. ... Halttunen provides us with a subtle book that gently unfolds from her mastery of the subject and intelligent prose."--Paula S. Fass, Journal of Social History "Halttunen has done her homework--the research has been tremendous, the notes and bibliography are impressive, and the text is peppered with hundreds of quotes--and gives some real insight into an area of American culture and history where we might have never bothered to look."--John Hopkins, Times Literary Supplement "The kind of imaginative history that opens up new questions, that challenges conventional historical understanding, and demonstrates how provocative and exciting cultural history can be."--William R. Leach, The New England Quarterly "A stunning contribution to American cultural history."--Alan Trachtenberg

Download or read book Arab Women in the Middle Ages written by Shirley Guthrie and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regardless of social rank and religion, whether Christian, Jew, or Muslim, Arab women in the middle ages played an important role in the functioning of society. This book is a journey into their daily lives, their private spaces and public roles. First we are introduced into the women's sanctuaries, their homes, and what occurs within its realm - marriage and contraception, childbirth and childcare, culinary traditions, body and beauty rituals - providing rare insight into the rites and rituals prevalent among the different communities of the time. These women were also much present in the public arena and made important contributions in the fields of scholarship and the affairs of state. A number of them were benefactresses, poets, calligraphers, teachers and sales women. Others were singing girls, professional mourners, bath-attendants and prostitutes. How these women managed their daily affairs, both personal and professional, defined their roles in the wider spheres of society. Drawing from the Islamic traditions, as well as legal documents, historical sources and popular chronicles of the time, Guthrie's book offers an informative study of an area which remaisn relatively unexplored. 'A useful survey on Arab (mostly Muslim) women's lives in past centuries.' RJAS 'Of greatest use to educators and lecturers looking for diverse and entertaining details of various aspects of medieval Near Eastern social life.' International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 'Reveals a broad understanding of the subject' MESA Bulletin

Download or read book Mean Girls Grown Up written by Cheryl Dellasega and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost every woman has experienced bullying. Whether her role was that of victim, aggressor, or bystander, the pain of relational aggression (female bullying) lasts long after the incident has passed. In Mean Girls Grown Up, Cheryl Dellasega explores why women are often their own worst enemies, offering practical advice for a variety of situations. Drawing upon extensive research and interviews, she shares real-life stories from women as well as the knowledge of experts who have helped women overcome the negative effects of aggression. Readers will hear how adult women can be just as vicious as their younger counterparts, learn strategies for dealing with adult bullies, how to avoid being involved in relational aggression, and more. Dellasega outlines how women can change their behavior successfully by shifting away from aggression and embracing a spirit of cooperation in interactions with others.

Download or read book Uppity Women of Medieval Times written by Vicki León and published by Conari Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide to the feisty women of medieval times profiles 200 of these fair and unfair damsels from around the world. There's English rose Hilda of Whitby, Viking leader Aud the Deep-Minded and Wu Zhao of China, who chose to concubine, connive, murder and machiavelli her way to a 50 year reign.