Women and Work Through a Comparative Lens: Gender and the Urban Labor Markets of Premodern Brabant and Biscay

Urban Markets and Women’s Labor: Navigating Institutional Boundaries in Premodern Europe

Women played a crucial role in medieval and early modern urban economies, yet their labor opportunities varied greatly depending on local institutions. This book compares the guild-structured labor markets of Antwerp and Mechelen in Brabant with Bilbao’s informal economy in Biscay during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By analyzing these distinct institutional contexts, it offers a multifaceted understanding of women’s economic roles in premodern Europe. Drawing on a wide range of legislative and judicial sources, Vandeweerdt demonstrates how legal frameworks, socioeconomic structures, and individual strategies shaped women’s activities in small-scale trade. Bridging institutional analysis and personal agency, Women and Work through a Comparative Lens sheds new light on the interplay between labor organization and everyday practices in premodern Europe.

Nena Vandeweerdt studies gendered socioeconomic interactions in late medieval and early modern towns. Her work has been funded by the Research Foundation Flanders and the Spanish Ministry of Science.