Confessional subjects Book

A good in-depth look at how women got on in the Middle Ages. Erler and Kowaleski's contributors paint fine portraits of strong, active women, who faced growing demands for male control of society. The researchers show an eventful age, full of dramatic struggles -- far from the common image of a static traditional "dark age." Only very slowly and with enormous difficulty were women were stripped of rights and powers. And the age of male control was quite temporary, as Western women launched endless initiatives to reassert their authority step by step.

The book closes with hopeful signs, which brought the Middle Ages to a close. For example, it shows the primary role of women in a movement for education of both sexes. When these women taught, they did it in their vernacular languages. And partly due to their growing influence, Latin declined as the language of learning.