Antonia Fraser. The Weaker Vessel (1984) A thorough survey of women’s lives in the 1600s. Fraser covers every role for which we have direct or indirect documentary evidence. The result is the usual mess of human virtue and vice, wisdom and folly. The sad fact is that during the 1600s, women lost some of the gains in legal and economic power that they had gained during Elizabeth I’s rule, which demonstrated that women were as capable as men. But even Elizabeth had to admit (in public anyhow) that her talent for government was a masculine one.
A reminder that women have been treated as chattel through most of history. There are Y-chromosome burdened people who would like women to revert to that status. And also a reminder that women had (and have) to be tougher than men. The title is ironic: pregnancy and childbirth were and are dangerous; only the toughest (and luckiest) survived.
Recommended, but it’s a long read. ***
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