ABSTRACT
All societies draw distinctions between m en’s work and women’s work. Cultural norms and prevailing values, as well as popular beliefs, all play a part in drawing those distinctions. Anthropologists have long recognized this, but historians have only recently turned to the study of the way the boundaries between women’s work and m en’s change over time. The definition of women’s work, what women did or did not do at a particular time, was affected not only by economic trends and technological development, but by changes in values, ideologies and political structures. These economic and cultural factors have at times shifted or blurred the lines between m en’s and women’s work; they have also determ ined what sorts of activities will be defined as ‘work’ and how that work will be valued. This essay explores wom en’s work from about 1500 to 1700, a time when the European economy and prevailing ideologies were both changing rapidly.
