When Gossips Meet
Women, Family, and Neighbourhood in Early Modern England
1st Edition
Published on 16. January 2003
411 pages
978-0-19-155508-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book explores how women of the poorer and middling sorts in early modern England negoitated a patriarchal culture in which they were generally excluded, marginalized, or subordinated. It focuses on the networks of close friends ('gossips') which gave them a social identity beyond the narrowly domestic, providing both companionship and practical support in disputes with husbands and with neighbours of either sex. The book also examines the micropolitics of the household, with its internal alliances and feuds, and women's agency in neighbourhood politics, exercised by shaping local public opinion, exerting pressure on parish officials, and through the role of informal female juries. If women did not openly challenge male supremacy, they could often play a significant role in shaping their own lives and the life of the local community.
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- The Patriachal Edifice
- Women and Patriarchy: Acceptance, Negotiation, and Defiance
- 2. Patriarchy and the World of Gossips
- Patriarchal Theory: Tensions and Gaps
- Women Without Men
- Women, Work, and Patriarchy
- When Gossips Meet
- Gossiping
- 3. Families and Gossips: The Experience of Marriage
- Domestic Politics
- The Injured Wife: Strategies for Redress
- Desperate Remedies: Divorce, Flight, and Homicide
- 4. Maidservants and the Politics of the Household
- The Terms of Service
- Social Realities: Law and Practice
- The Good Employer
- The Bad Employer
- Surviving Service: The Politics of the Household
- Domestic Alliances and Rivalries
- Covert Resistance: Pilfering, Slander, and Exposure
- Overt Resistance
- Flight
- Conclusion
- 5. Women and Neighbours: Female Disputes
- Quarrels: The Language of Insult
- Insults as Street Theatre
- The Politics of Defamation
- Defensive Tactics
- Physical Violence and the Law
- 6. Women and Neighbours: Disputes with Men
- Male Threats
- Female Strategies of Defence
- Male Honour and Women on the (Counter-) Offensive
- 7. Women as Citizens: Public and Political Life
- Community and Reputation
- Gossip and the Politics of Pressure
- Activating the Machinery of Law
- Networks and Mutual Protection
- Women as Citizens: National and Micropolitics
- The Roots of Political Awareness
- Women and Public Life
- Juries of Matrons
- Midwives and the Public Sphere
- Female Politics: Petitioning
- Direct Action: Women and Public Protest
- Conclusion
- 8. Recreation, Religion, and Female Culture
- Women, the Family, and Recreation
- Separate Recreations: Married Women
- Young Women and Maidservants
- The Recreations of Young People
- Same-Sex Recreations
- Women and the Festive Calendar
- Religion and Beliefs
- Gender and 'Superstition'
- A Sub-Culture of Women?
- 9. Conclusion
- Bibliography of Manuscript Sources
- Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- Y
