1. Women’s Life Cycles Cradle to Grave

2. Women’s Life Cycles ▪ Why study life cycle in history? ▪ What key questions should we pose? ▪ Why is it important for women’s history? ▪ How does gender affect concepts and experiences of life cycle? ▪ What problems attend study of medieval women’s life cycle? ▪ Are the “Ages of Man” also the “Ages of Woman”?

3. Wheel of Life (10 Ages of Man), De Lisle Psalter, Arundel 83, f.126

4. Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-66 All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

5. Hans Baldung Grien, The Seven Ages of Woman, 1544

6. Britain in 1750sBritain in 1970s Median female age at death = 35Median female age at death = 80 66% females alive at age 5; 58% alive at 25; 35% alive at 65 98% females alive at age 20; 96% alive at 45; 83% alive at 65 Work (productive labour) would begin in childhood, usually before age 10 71% women (75% men) in paid work at 16 Women’s median age at marriage about 21Women’s median age at marriage about 21 (23 for men) Average completed family size 6Average completed family size 2 Women finished childbearing on average by 39Women finished childbearing on average by 28 Last grandchild born when grandmother was on average 77 but on average she had died 12 years earlier. Last grandchild born when grandmother was on average 56. Great-grandparenthood almost unknownGreat-grandparenthood common Retirement little known71% women retired by 60 (75% men retired by 65) Michael Anderson, ‘The Emergence of the Modern Life Cycle in Britain,’ Social History, 10, 1 (1985), 69-87.

7. Roberta Gilchrist, ‘Experiencing Age: the Medieval Body’ ▪ Discuss Gilchrist on skeleton analyses. ▪ Does she adequately attend to gender? ▪ What does the study of osteoarchaeology add to our perceptions of medieval life cycle? ▪ What did you find interesting?

8. Second Hour ▪ Allocate topics for primary sources. 2 or 3 students per week. Details on p. 2. ▪ Research essays Step one is to identify a topic of interest (easy). Step two is to devise a question that encourages the development of an argument (harder). ‘What’ questions not v helpful. ‘Why’ and ‘How’ questions are better. ▪ Some terms that can help sharpen questions and thus lead to a clearer approach “Assess” (weigh up different perspectives on a topic and come to a conclusion) “Evaluate” (consider the relative merits of different positions) “Compare and/or contrast” (consider similarities and/or differences between aspects of a topic) “Define” (self-explanatory) “Discuss” (consider your subject from different points of view and come to a conclusion) “Explain” or “Account for” (self-explanatory) “Justify” (state a position and defend it) ▪ In groups: tell others your topic of interest. Devise a question. Come up with suggestions for sources, esp. primary.