Women and Work in England in the Age of the Black Death
Professor Mark Bailey
Mark Bailey is a Professor of Late Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, and in 2019 was the James Ford Lecturer in British History at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College. The Ford Lectures have been published as After the Black Death by OUP.
About the event
The chronic shortage of workers and tenants after the devastation of Black Death in 1348-9 presented unparalleled opportunities for women to enter the labour and land markets, which some historians have heralded as a golden age for women. Others have argued that the golden age was restricted to women in the North Sea region of Europe, creating the nuclear 'western' family and driving the march to modernity. Here we review the evidence and the arguments for one of the liveliest current debates in social history.