| IntroductionIn this critique of Women In The | | | | lives: childbirth, survival, marriage, |
| Middle Ages, I will identify the Gies' | | | | property rights, legal rights, education, |
| purpose in writing this book and discuss how | | | | work, political roles, and religious |
| well they fulfilled their purpose. Also I | | | | roles.Authors' Writing StyleDespite the |
| will evaluate the merits and shortcomings of | | | | difficulties in writing about medieval women, |
| this book in relation to the themes, sources | | | | the Gies do an excellent job of providing the |
| used, and the authors' writing style.Authors' | | | | reader with an extended, if not complete, |
| PurposeThe Gies assert that researching and | | | | view of the lives of these women. They must |
| writing about women in the Middle Ages is | | | | necessarily fill in some blanks that history |
| difficult, due to the sources that are | | | | has left us, but the majority of their |
| commonly used and which gives a misogynic | | | | conclusions seem very logical and believable. |
| view of women, such as the writings of Church | | | | For instance, the pervasive belief that women |
| fathers, contemporary law books, and literary | | | | had few legal rights is shown to be not |
| works. The Gies attempt to describe the lives | | | | strictly true in the descriptions of the |
| of women in the thousand years known as the | | | | woman who disinherited her son in favor of a |
| early Middle Ages, Dark Ages, and High Middle | | | | kinswoman (21) and other examples of women |
| Ages.The first section of the book offers | | | | maintaining control over their own |
| background information on the lives of women | | | | property.The manner in which the Gies trace |
| in the early Middle Ages, and the last | | | | the fluctuating status of women in the Middle |
| section are individual portraits of specific | | | | Ages is seen to be directly connected to |
| women in the High Middle Ages. The Gies | | | | politics, economics, and changing social |
| explore several elements that affect women's | | | | structure. |