Medieval Single Women by Cordelia Beattie

The writing is clear and direct and the scholarship on which the book rests is thorough and well substantiated.

Butler, Speculum 'This book is well worth reading for its many insights into the complex and multifaceted set of cultural values surrounding single women. 'Beattie's book provides a vital starting point for discussion and should be applauded for its resourcefulness and creativity.'-Sara M. Using a variety of approaches, from social and cultural history, to gender history, and medieval studies, its original methodology offers an innovative approach to a range of historical texts, from pastoral manuals to tax returns, and guildregisters.

Rather than isolate gender as a variable, this bookexamines how it relates to other social cleavages. Defining how a group or an individual should be labelled, means variables such as social status, gender, or age, are prioritized. In this book, Cordelia Beattie views classification as a political act, an act of power: those classifying must make choices about which divisions are most important or about who falls into which category, and such choices have repercussions. All societies use classifications in order to understand and impose order. Does it denote all unmarried women, therefore creating a group which every female was part of at some stage in her life? Or, were the categories 'maiden' and 'widow' so culturally significant in late medieval England that 'single woman' was a residual category for women seen as anomalous? Was the category 'single man' used in an equivalent way and, if not, why? This study offers a way into the complex processof social classification in late medieval England. The single woman is a troubling and disruptive category.

Medieval Single Women by Cordelia Beattie