Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England

Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3184471
AutoresJulie Hardwick, Judith M Bennett, Judith Bennett (0000-0002-5033-0804)
Año1997
Volumen28
Número2
Páginas266
Fecha de publicación1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/206415
OpenAlexW2326357468
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas46

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. 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

Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Mechanical Engineering