Chapter 5 - Women from the Low Countries in England and Their Economic Activities

Summary

Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Flemish women had been active in key stages of cloth production, such as weaving, or other finishing crafts (apart from fulling). However, when the textile industry shifted during the fourteenth century towards guild-controlled production of more expensive woollens, job opportunities for women declined. Their involvement as independent workers became rather restricted. They were gradually pushed towards lower-paid, labour-intensive activities in the preparatory stages of cloth production such as washing, combing, carding and spinning the wool. As no scholar on either side of the English Channel has ever considered the position of immigrant women in the fourteenth century, we are left with several open questions: would this shift in production within the urban industries be one of the push factors? How better off were Flemish women if they emigrated to England (alone or with husbands)? The purpose of this chapter is to examine the economic activities of Flemish women in England, with a specific focus on the textile industry and the ways in which women contributed separately from their male compatriots.