Valuing Women's Work in Late Medieval England

该项目旨在评估中世纪妇女的家务无偿工作，这项工作通过“核心”经济支持和维持家庭，但在经济理论中被忽视，因为它被认为是“非市场活动”，尽管它可能具有很高的价值。妇女要烧火、做饭、洗衣、打扫卫生、照顾和喂养家庭成员、取水、缝制和修补衣服、照料牲畜或照料花园以供养家庭，以及从事对家庭的生产力和稳定至关重要的各种其他任务。同时，妇女往往在家庭内外从事商业活动，以进一步支持其家庭。这可能包括家庭工作，如纺纱，编织，梳理，酿造，烘焙，出售家庭剩余，这些工作与房子有关，可以在家务劳动期间或之外完成。该项目将观察妇女的工业劳动和有报酬的家务劳动，以得出中世纪妇女工作有多大价值的结论，我们还询问是否可以评估非市场无偿工作；如果在中世纪家庭中可以观察到经济伙伴关系；妇女的工作在城市商业环境中是否比在农村农业环境中更有价值；与此同时，一种消极的学术观点认为，与男性相比，中世纪女性几乎没有影响力或价值。该项目将设法填补在确定家庭妇女工作的“利润”和价值方面的空白。为了实现这一目标，该项目将观察各种当代文件，如对不合格工作的起诉，如违反规定或违反法规，如《劳工法》对劳工的超额收费，并观察妇女为贸易纠纷寻求赔偿的案件，如在衡平法院或普通上诉法院的案件。最近的经济学家，如Flamholtz，在以非货币方式评估人力资源方面的工作，对于确定家务劳动的价值也至关重要。将审查一系列区域、城镇和村庄，以便在农村和城市环境之间取得可比性，对某些地区提出更具体的规定，并考虑到有关影响价值的外部因素的问题。将对所有来源进行定量和定性分析，不仅要获得统计数据，还要评估与官方机构的相互作用。中世纪文学中关于女性作品的比喻也将被观察到，如约翰·高尔的《镜子》和威廉·朗兰的《农夫皮尔斯》，以提供一种定性的比较方法。这项研究将有助于一些历史讨论，并允许提出关于长期性别平等及其根源的重要问题。通过回顾过去，它将突出核心经济对当今经济体系的重要性和价值。

This project seeks to value medieval women's domestic unpaid work, this work supported and sustained the household through a 'core' economy, but it is ignored within economic theory as it is considered to be 'non-market activity' despite its likely high value. Women would keep hearths alight, cook, wash, clean, attend to and feed family members, fetch water, make and mend clothes, tend to any livestock or garden to provide for the household and various other tasks that were essential for the productivity and stability of the household. At the same time women would often undertake commercial activities within and away from the home to further support their household. This could include domestic jobs such as spinning, weaving, carding, brewing, baking, selling household surpluses, these jobs were tied to the house and could be done during and in addition to domestic chores. This project will observe both women's industrial and remunerative household tasks to come to a conclusion on how valuable medieval women's work was, we also ask whether or not non-market unpaid work can be valued; if economic partnerships are observable within medieval households; whether women's work was more valuable in urban commercial settings than a rural agricultural context; all whilst tackling a negative over-arching scholarly narrative that medieval women had little impact or value in comparison to their male counterparts. This project will seek to fill the gap in determining how 'profitable' and valuable to the household women's work was.To achieve this the project will observe various contemporary documents such as prosecutions of substandard work, such as breaches of assize or breaches of statutes such as the Statute of Labourers for the overcharging of labour and observe cases whereby women sought redress for trading disputes such as those in courts of Chancery or Common Pleas. Work by recent economists, such as Flamholtz, in valuing human resources in non-monetary terms will also be vital in determining a value for domestic work. A range of regions, towns and villages will be examined to allow for comparability between rural and urban settings and to provide for more specificity to certain areas and allow for questions regarding external factors impacting the values. All sources will be both quantitatively and qualitatively analysed to not just obtain statistical data but to assess interactions with official bodies. Medieval literary tropes regarding women's work will also be observed, such as Mirour de l'Omme by John Gower and William Langland's Piers Plowman, to provide a qualitative comparative approach.This research will contribute towards a number of historical discussions and allow for important questions to be raised regarding long-term gender equalities and its roots. By examining the past, it will highlight the importance and value of the core economy to the economic systems of today.