A history of their own: women in Europe from prehistory to the present. Volume I

Volume 1. Part I. Traditions inherited : attitudes about women from the centuries before 800 A.D.: Buried traditions : the question of origins

Inherited traditions : the principal influences

Traditions subordinating women

Traditions empowering women

The effects of Christianity.

Part II. Women of the fields : sustaining the generations: The constants of the peasant women's world : the Ninth to the Twentieth Centuries

Sustaining the generations

The extraordinary

What remains of the peasant woman's world.

Part III. Women of the churches : the power of the faithful: The patterns of power and limitation : the Tenth to the Seventeenth Centuries

Authority within the institutional church

Authority outside the institutional church

Authority given and taken away : the protestant and Catholic reformations

Traditional images redrawn

The legacy of the protestant reformation.

Part IV. Women of the castles and manors : custodians of land and lineage: From warrior's wife to noblewoman : the Ninth to the Seventeenth centuries

Constants of the noblewoman's life

Power and vulnerability

The new flowering of ancient traditions.

Part V. Women of the walled towns : providers and partners: The townswoman's daily life : the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Centuries

Dangers and remedies

The world of commercial capitalism : the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries

The invisible and visible bonds of misogyny.

Volume 1. Part I. Traditions inherited : attitudes about women from the centuries before 800 A.D.: Buried traditions : the question of origins

Inherited traditions : the principal influences

Traditions subordinating women

Traditions empowering women

The effects of Christianity.

Part II. Women of the fields : sustaining the generations: The constants of the peasant women's world : the Ninth to the Twentieth Centuries

Sustaining the generations

The extraordinary

What remains of the peasant woman's world.

Part III. Women of the churches : the power of the faithful: The patterns of power and limitation : the Tenth to the Seventeenth Centuries

Authority within the institutional church

Authority outside the institutional church

Authority given and taken away : the protestant and Catholic reformations

Traditional images redrawn

The legacy of the protestant reformation.

Part IV. Women of the castles and manors : custodians of land and lineage: From warrior's wife to noblewoman : the Ninth to the Seventeenth centuries

Constants of the noblewoman's life

Power and vulnerability

The new flowering of ancient traditions.

Part V. Women of the walled towns : providers and partners: The townswoman's daily life : the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Centuries

Dangers and remedies

The world of commercial capitalism : the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries

The invisible and visible bonds of misogyny.