Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

Historical fiction writer Gregory (It’s a Prince Thing) chronicles the role British women played in society by era, starting in the year 1086. Her book shows that after the Norman conquest of Britain, convents and abbeys retained power and wealth; they also functioned as learning centers for girls and women, who made and published books, and engaged in the arts. Gregory emphasizes the indispensability of women in a wide variety of professions, including raising livestock, apprenticing in various trades, and working as domestic servants. Women also did healing work, such as herbalism, midwifery, and nursing, despite the restrictions placed on those fields in the 20th century. For instance, though the greatest physical danger for women was childbirth, midwives were forbidden from offering advice on contraception, even in the 1920s. Gregory notes too that sex work was not a permanent occupation for many women but was instead an option to exercise as necessity demanded. Women were also not excluded from military service and stepped into roles of leadership during the Thirty Years’ War.