Women’s Work and Rights in Early Modern Urban Europe

Anna Bellavitis is Professor of Early Modern History at Rouen University in Normandy, France and Senior Member of the University Institute of France. Her research concentrates on family and gender history, urban history and citizenship and labour history.

Part I: Women, Work, Rights and the City.- Chapter 1: Women have Always Worked.- Chapter 2: The Gender of Work.- Chapter 3: Working Daughters, Wives, Mothers, Sisters, Widows.- Chapter 4: The "Decline Thesis" and the Guilds: An "Accordion Movement"?.- Chapter 5: From Globalisation to Industrialisation.- Chapter 6: Agency and Capabilities: North vs South?.- Chapter 7: The Right to Learn, the Right to Teach: Intellectual and Artistic Work as a Profession.- Part II: Women's Jobs.- Chapter 8: Servants and Slaves.- Chapter 9: Caring and Feeding.- Chapter 10: Midwives.- Chapter 11: Bodies as Resources.- Part III: Workshops and Markets.- Chapter 12: Learning at Home and on the Shop Floor.- Chapter 13: Women, Families and Guilds: the French Exception.- Chapter 14: Silk and Skill.- Chapter 15: Printed Tracks.- Chapter 16: In the Marketplace.- Chapter 17: International Traders.- Part IV: Conclusions.- Chapter 18: Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research.