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England’s Immigrants: Gender and Opportunity

The data represented throughout this post is that of the data set “England’s Immigrants 1330-1550. ” The data set is comprised of those who immigrated to England during this period: 64, 230 entries in total, 57, 898 of which are male and 6,332 being female. This post, however, will focus upon those with a listed occupation, the 17,446 men and 1,465 women listed. From these numbers alone, the disproportionate employment of men versus women is obvious. Women were afforded less opportunities due to societal gendered spheres. Learning trades through apprenticeships, for example, were not considered appropriate for a woman. As a result, women were more often unskilled laborers and more susceptible to poverty, with poverty and lack of opportunity often being the motivation to immigrate, such as is the case with the Scottish women in Northumberland.

It is important to note that the primary source of this data set was from tax assessments from 1440-1487. The tax was instated on “aliens” beginning in 1440 in order to fund the naval defense during the Hundred Years War. Immigration to England was highly unregulated during the Medieval Period and no census was taken of immigrants aside from the institution of this tax. Immigrants were identified by an appointed jury of men in each town which was to distinguish those who immigrated within the town, therefore the data set is not an exact representation of the women who immigrated during this period.Jessica Lutking, “England’s Immigratns 1330-1550: A Study of National Identity, Culture, and Integration,” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies (University of Pennsylvania Press) 13 no. 4 (2013), 144.

Women as a whole were under recognized. For example, the wife of an English born male would not be taxed and the wives of immigrants were not required to be included on her husband’s tax statement. As seen from the graph below, women were unlikely to be householders.Sylvia L. Thrupp, “A Survey of the Alien Population of England in 1440,” Speculum 32, no. 2 (1957), 269. The most common way for a woman to become a householder was with the death of her husband, however, it was still difficult for a woman to gain this recognition, therefore, it is unlikely that this is a just assessment of the women immigrants during this period.

As exemplified in the above graph, the most common occupation of a woman was a servant, with 1,382 women employed in the profession. Although most men were employed as servants, men had a greater number of professions available to them, including religious professions, trades, military service, as well as mercantile trade. These forms of employment were not offered to women as a rule, for example, guilds would not accept women.Barbara A. Hanawalt, “Nedieval English Women in Rural and Urban Domestic Space,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 52 (1998), 24. Gendered spheres prevented women from entering many professions including a religious profession or military service. With little professional options, most women became servants under contract, employed in a household. Due to this lack of opportunity, women were more likely to became beggars or vagabonds. Women are strongly recognized in this group, with 31 women identified as vagabonds, compared to 41 men. In comparison to other professions, women are strongly represented in this category. In this context, vagabond is a seasonal worker who would travel the country by foot looking for temporary work.Lutkin Jessica, “England’s Immigrants 1330- 1550: A Study of National Identity, Culture, and Integration,” 146. This was a dangerous lifestyle as women were more susceptible to attacks while on the road.

Labor was divided according to the worker’s gender. Some activities were restricted to either men or women; other activities were preferred to be performed by one gender over the other…”

Jane Whittle Jane Whittle, “Rural Economy,” In Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, ed. Judith Bennett, Ruth Mazo Karras (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 315-316.

This susceptibility to attack and fear regarding the protection of womanhood and womanly virtue influenced societal expectations, creating these gendered spheres which restricted a woman’s occupational opportunity. There was a belief in two separate spaces for men and women: the man’s “outside” and the woman’s home. Women were expected to care for domestic needs, such as cooking, cleaning, mending, general maintenance of the home and child rearing. If a woman were to leave the home and consequently the female space, she did so in the company of other women so as to ward off unwanted male attention.Hanawalt, “Medieval Englishwomen in Rural and Urban Domestic Space, 20. This attempt to ward off attention is ingrained in the culture, as in London a law was decreed which required women to wear a veil while in public. Self-help books for women published during this period also encouraged women to keep their heads down while in public. This compares to the books intended for men, which recommended looking passersby in the eye so as to exude confidence.Hanawalt, 22. A woman was to remain within the safe space of the home or risk dishonor. A woman’s virtue was so highly valued that when a goldsmith sent his female servant on an errand which would require her to stay in an inn for a night, the entire guild of goldsmiths considered itself to be dishonored because the man placed his servant in danger by removing her from the safety of the home.Hanawalt, 23. Women were underrepresented in categories of occupations as gendered spheres restricted the activities a woman could perform or the places she could go.

The majority of women who immigrated came from close locations, such as Scotland and Ireland. Since women were so occupationally limited, it was difficult to obtain funds to travel long distances. Women were also commonly denied passage on ships due to superstitions, making travel all the more difficult.Judith M. Bennett, “Women (and Men) on the Move: Scots in the English North c. 1440,” 3. Those from Scotland and Ireland, however, had relatively short journeys through the English Channel, and those in Scotland could even walk to England.

The majority of these working immigrant women came from Scotland. Several factors motivated immigration during this period: Scotland was plagued by constant conflict due to the ongoing Scottish War for Independence, a new rental system was introduced called “feuing” which required a sizeable preliminary payment which many could not afford, and a poor harvest along the Scottish border dating back to 1435 left many starving. Mobile work was also a commonality in Scotland, meaning traveling to new locations with economic opportunity, such as England, was not out of the norm.Bennett, “Women (and Men) on the Move: Scots in the English North c. 1440,” 5. The women came to find opportunity in England as the population had not yet recovered from the Black Plague which had claimed more than half of the English population. These Scottish women primarily settled in the English north, such as in Northumberland as it was close to their point of entry.

This group of Scottish women was primarily comprised of the unskilled labor of those looking to escape starvation and poverty.Bennett, 11. As a result, the majority of women were servants. This is exemplified in Northumberland, with 96 women employed as servants. Most women entered contractual servitude with a household. Women, however, were more likely than men to be offered shorter terms of employment, were paid less than their male counterparts, and had a more difficult time receiving payment once their time was served.

It should be noted that some women were tradespeople during this period. Although not a significant number, 5 women were tradespeople and two were laborers in the town of Suffolk. Women were a vital part of the wool industry during this period.Eileen Power, “The English Wool Trade in the Reign of Edward IV,” The Cambridge Historical Journal 2, no. 1 (1926), 17. In the 15th century, wool production became a profitable industry as the material was increasingly used for cloth. As a result, towns such as Suffolk became centers of cloth production, attracting men and women alike. Spinning materials into cloth was primarily considered to be a woman’s duty, so much so, that in medieval literature women are often depicted holding a distaff, a tool used for spinning wool.Marian K. Dale”The London Silkwomen of the 15th Century,” The Economic History Review 4, no. 3 (1933), 331. This practice allowed a woman to partake in a trade while still remaining within her gendered sphere. A woman with a trade was also able to support herself, coining the term of “Spinster” referring to an older single and independent woman.

The above image is from a manuscript dating back to 14th c. England. It depicts a woman beating a man with a distaff. The involvement of women in trades contradicted traditional gender roles, as reflected in the above rendering. The woman asserts dominance over the man by beating him with the tool of her trade.The Luttrell Psalter, Manuscript, England, 1325-1340, from The British Library, The Middle Ages.

A large amount of women also immigrated to London. This was common as larger towns promised greater opportunity and attracted more people. London was also an economic hub, so wealthy men, such as merchants would populate the town, resulting in wealthy homes to hire servants, as evidenced by the 148 women employed in servitude.

Women were afforded fewer opportunities than men in terms of employment during the Medieval period. A woman’s opportunities were limited due to the existence of gendered spheres and the need to protect a woman’s virtue. As a result, the majority of women were employed in servitude. There were some exceptions such as women employed in the wool industry. Even this trade, however, fell within these gendered spheres as spinning cloth was traditionally a practice performed by a woman. Immigrating promised economic opportunity, exemplified by the large amount of women immigrating from Scotland to Northumberland, however, this economic opportunity was limited to certain professions. No women, for example, were involved in the military, religious professions or were employed in maritime professions to name but a few. Women were primarily confined to their gendered sphere within the home and professions associated with it.

Now take this information and test it! See how you would fare as a Scottish vagabond woman in medieval England. Be sure to enter your name or you will be referred to as “Scot,” since women were more likely than men to be referred to as their nationality rather than their name, on governmental records.Bennett, 23. Click the link below and good luck!

References

Bennett, Judith M. “Women (and Men) on the Move: Scots in the English North c. 1440.” Journal of British Studies 57,  (January 2018): 1–28.

Dale, Marian K. “The London Silkwomen of the Fifteenth Century.” The Economic History Review 4, no. 3 (1933): 324-335.

Hanawalt, Barbara A. “Medieval English Women in Rural and Urban Domestic Space.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 52 (1998): 19-26.

Lutkin, Jessica. “England’s Immigrants 1330-1550: A Study of National Identity, Culture, and Integration.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies (University of Pennsylvania Press) 13 no. 4 (2013): 144–47.

The Luttrell Psalter. Manuscript. England, 1325-1340. From The British Library, The Middle Ages.

Power, Eileen. “The English Wool Trade in the Reign of Edward IV.” The Cambridge Historical Journal 2, no. 1 (1926): 17.

Thrupp, Sylvia L. “A Survey of the Alien Population of England in 1440.” Speculum 32, no. 2 (1957): 262.

Whittle, Jane. “Rural Economy.” In Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, edited by Bennett, Judith M.; Mazo Karras, Ruth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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