Women's roles in eighteenth-century Europe

This historical overview of the existing historiography of women from across eighteenth-century Europe covers women of all ages, married and single, rich and poor. Women's lives in 18th-century Europe were not as predictable as one might expect. Freed Caribbean slave Rebecca Protten lived in Europe and Africa and held positions of spiritual authority over high-born, white women as a deaconess in the Pietist religious sect. Mary Lacy dressed as a man, enlisted in the British Navy, and became a successful shipwright, writing of her experiences in 1773. During the 18th century, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, protoindustrialization, and colonial conquest made their marks on women's lives in a variety of ways. This volume examines women of all ages and social backgrounds as they experienced the major events of this tumultuous period of sweeping social and political change. The book offers an inclusive portrayal of women from across Europe, surveying nations from Portugal to the Russian Empire, from Finland to Italy, including the often overlooked women of Eastern Europe. It depicts queens, an empress, noblewomen, peasants, and midwives. Separate chapters on family, work, politics, law, religion, arts and sciences, and war explore the varying contexts of the feminine experience, from the most intimate aspects of daily life to broad themes and conditions.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.