Katherine L. French

Kit French's latest book explores domestic life and material culture in London from the fourteenth century on, as the city's inhabitants had to "learn to live with more." French argues that higher wages, the increasing availability of commercial goods, and a growth in domestic living space reshaped social mores and relationships in the aftermath of the Black Death. Rather than seeing the fifteenth century as a Golden Age for London women, as some have done before, French argues for it as a time when the gendered nature of household tasks grows more rigid. French's command of the archival sources is masterful, and she is deft at showing how ostensibly dry documents like wills and household inventories can be read for what they tell us about shifts in thinking and effective attachments.… (more)

This is a very readable, interesting look at lay women's religious practices in late medieval England. French marshals an impressive array of documentation in order to discuss how women engaged with their religion and their society—how they used religious practices to make themselves part of their society, and to operate within/outside of patriarchal control. It's scholarly, but it is still accessible to the lay person. (Despite a shocking number of typos from something produced by the UPenn Press—"well-bread" women; religious ceremonies or "rights"; ecclesiastical laws or "statues", etc.) Despite the title, the book is mostly concerned with women rather than gender. Construction of gender roles, theologies, ideas re: women and ritual, pollution, etc, are largely ignored, making this more about women and popular religious practice than anything else. Still, very worth the read if you are interested in this area.… (more)