ABSTRACT
This chapter explores women's work from about 1500 to 1700, a dme when the European economy and prevailing ideologies were both changing rapidly. The early modem period was thus transitional in economic terms, with traditional domestic production existing side by side with both mercantile and protoindustrial capitalism. The rise of capitalism brought ideological with economic change. During the Middle Ages, work was defined as an activity performed to support and sustain oneself and one' family. The majority of women and men in early modern Europe continued to work in agriculture; three-quarters of the population remained in the countryside. Economists generally divide occupations into production, sales, and service. This derives from the organization of male labour in the modern economy, and is somewhat misleading for the early modern period, when, for example, individuals engaged in production often sold their own products. The line between men's and women's work gradually grew into a gulf, and eventually affected the definition of work itself.
