I honestly really like the aspect of the book where it's not really anything new if you've been paying any attention to history or feminism, but she makes connections between ideas, and the implications, explicit. Draws lines between the "old, outdated" ideas and how they're effectively still around.

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It's an easy read, with a friendly tone, much like the author's Going Medieval blog, but polished. For most of us interested in feminism or medieval history, the information inside will be familiar. Particularly in recent years, more medievalists have been trying to get the public to understand that the Middle Ages weren't some backwards, primitive time, and this is another book in that vein. But it also wants us to understand where modern Western ideas about women originated, and how if we want to say we're more enlightened and better than in the Middle Ages, we need to examine the received wisdom and actually be better.

There are five chapters in the book:
1. Where medieval people got their ideas, and how those ideas were spread (ancient philosophers, Augustine, Aquinas, etc, and often through the clergy) - this chapter shows how and why women were thought to be less than fully human, not as good as men

2. How women were expected to be - the idea of capital-b Beauty, in particular, and what was considered a beautiful woman. I instinctively knew most of this from all the art I've seen, but why blonde hair, specifically, is the most prized was new, and interesting. Janega goes on to discuss the implications of this Beauty, and how women were expected to live up to it without seeming to try.

3. Is about sex. What sex was okay, what was sinful, about courtly love, etc, and tied back to those philosophers again. Because any non-procreative sex was wrong, and it was woman's fault man became lustful.

4. Women's work - primarily divided by social class, this chapter breaks down all the work that women were expected to do, and the professions they are known to have held. This chapter makes it clear that women did everything men did, if not more. It also talks about what the work entailed, and who could do what.

5. Why it matters - taking all of these things about medieval beliefs and attitudes towards women, Janega asks how is Western culture different now? Most of it is the same, but ascribed to "science" instead of "God" - women's roles and ideas of beauty etc get written up as "innate" even though they are anything but - if they were, why are they so different from what was considered natural 500 years ago? And if we pride ourselves on being more enlightened and progressive than medieval people were, why do we continue spreading ideas that, ultimately, came from a couplr of really fucked up men?

I had fun reading this and recognizing where things i picked up in Catholic school came from, things i hadn't really examined since we were taught "but that's old now". There were some nuggets of new information amongst the familiar, as well as recontextualization. I don't know if i have the energy or focus to read a more academic, detailed book like those Janega cites, but I do feel like I got a thorough overview of the topic. ( )

Not a terrible book, and actually quite interesting at some points, but there are absolutely no new conclusions here and the author’s tone can be so silly at times. When an author purporting to write a book on women’s roles in history has to explain to her audience what the three waves of feminism are, I just can’t take it too seriously, you know?

Basically, it’s a good audiobook to put on in the background. ( )

An enlightening and acerbic look at the roles of women and how they were seen during the Middle Ages. Janega deftly weaves history with wit in this whirlwind primer on the many misconceptions of and about medieval-era women, their sources, and how they are still influencing us today.

There is much work left to do.... ( )