Research On The Occupations Of English Labor Class Women In The Late Middle Ages

The research of English labor class women occupations in the late Middle Ages is the category of social and economic history,women's history and gender history.The research on this problem will be helpful to further understand the late medieval England working class women's living condition,social status and roles in the development of social economy.In this paper,the author discusses the main occupations and their roles of working class women in England in the late Middle Ages.The article is consisted of five parts: the first part is an introduction,combing the domestic and international female studies in the history of medieval England,and related personal views on the issue.The second part starts from discussing the agricultural production of household labor and hired labor of the working class women in specific situations to analyze the animal husbandry and planting industry,aiming at explaining the economic income and gender division of rural labor women.The third part mainly discusses the various female occupations except for agriculture and animal husbandry,of which textile industry,ale industry and retail industry are more representative.Compared with agriculture and animal husbandry,these occupations have more social characteristics,so they can be called the social occupation.The fourth part mainly discusses the minority occupations that working women engaged,emphasizes on the typical occupations such as maids,prostitution and medical industry and analyzes women's status and roles in the occupations.The fifth part is the conclusion,which summarizes the characteristics and functions of the female occupations in the late Middle Ages in England,and the author makes a brief comment.In the late Middle Ages,the occupations of the working class women in England were closely related to their labors.During this period,women's labors can be divided into two parts: family(household)labor and social labor.This paper examines the working class women's occupations,their values created,and the correlation between different social status in order to provide some references for investigating the England social and economic history and women's history.