Women in the Public Sphere in Early Modern England: The Case of the Urban Working Poor

Abstract

Women frequently predominated among the recipients of poor relief in England, 1550-1700, the result of economic, demographic, and cultural factors. Less often observed is the participation of women as public employees in dispensing relief. This arrangement explains some of the weaknesses as well as the strengths of English poor relief. Moreover, the lives of these women implicitly challenge our modern assumptions and suggest that the dichotomy between domestic and public did not apply. Excluded from politics and power, women of the working poor participated in public matters-albeit in ways that did not challenge traditional patriarchy and hierarchy. I