What were some common jobs for women in the early 1600s? ?

Question: What were some common jobs for women in the early 1600s!? !?
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Most would have been housewives, but helping out on farms would have been standard in the country!.

In towns, I expect they would have had jobs as domestic servants, shopkeepers, milliners, dress-makers, cooks, and of course, the oldest profession - prostitutes!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

There weren't really any jobs for women during that time period!. Mostly, women got married at a young age, settled down, and had children!. In the 1600s the minimum legal age for marriage in England was 12 (!) but the actual minimum was about 14-15!. Parliament raised the minimum age for marriage (and the age of consent) to 16 in 1885!. Women weren't valued very much during that specific time period!. Hope I helped! Www@QuestionHome@Com

If they worked outside the home, they could be cooks, scullery maids, serving maids, governesses, dressers, seamstresses or fine needle workers!. If they worked inside the home, they cooked, cleaned, looked after the kids and their husbands!. There weren't a lot of career options for women in that time period!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

There were a few women in the 16th century who attained positions of power, most notably of course Queen Elizabeth I, who succeeded in staying Queen of England for forty-four years!. And there were powerful noblewomen like Bess of Hardwick, for instance!. The wives of noblemen would be expected to manage the family estates while their husbands were at court, and managing an estate was a very demanding job!. A few young unmarried noblewomen would have positions at court as maids of honour to the Queen!.

Most women, of whatever class, would have expected to get married eventually!. women of the upper class were often married off quite young, in their early teens, and marriages were usually arranged by their families!. Among the lower orders, it was more usual for women and men to choose thier own spouses, and to marry later, in their mid-twenties, when they had worked and saved enough to set up a household together!. young unmarried women often worked as domestic servants, or they might be apprenticed to other trades!. The textile trade employed a lot of women doing knitting and sewing!. The 1570 census of the poor in Norwich includes an entry for a fourteen-year-old girl who was providing the 'chief living' for her father's family by knitting great hose (stockings)!. The silk trade was a very lucrative trade for a girl, since silk was a luxury item!.

Running a Tudor household was a complex business, and women of all classes would have been expected to have a wide variety of skills!. As well as cooking and preserving of food, they would be expected to be skillfull at spinning, because the production of thread for making clothes was an important part of a woman's duties!. Brewing ale was another important housewifely task, since ale was drunk instead of water, which was mostly too impure to drink (small ale, which would be drunk mostly during the day, was very weak and contained little alcahol)!. A housewife was also expected to have a good knowledge of medicine and first aid, since doctors were in short supply and most people lived in the country where there would be no doctor nearby!. Household manuals of the time even contain instructions for setting broken bones!. Things like soap and candles were often made at home rther than being bought, which was also the housewife's job!.

Women who were married to tradesmen were usually involved in their husband's businesses!. Most businesses in those days were conducted from home and tended to be family affairs, with wives and children involved!. A widow would often continue her husband's business after he died, and women were sometimes in business on their own account, independent of their husbands!. In 'The tudor Housewife', Alison Sim writes:

"In the sixteenth century, work still revolved very much around the home, so that the split between work and family life was nowhere near as obvious as it is to us, and was sometimes non-existent!. A woman might brew beer for use at home, but sell the surplus, just as her dairy might provide produce for both the home and the market place!. A wealthy merchant's wife who would expect to look after the family accounts, might well also do the accounts for her husband's business!. A few intrepid women even ran businesses in their own right and handled a great deal of money!. A woman with a good head for business was certainly an asset to her family!. there were also quite significant numbers of women who never married and therefore had no choice bu tto earn an independent living!."

The bearing and rearing of children was of course a major part of most women's lives!. Childbirth was a hazardous business in those days, and the mortality rate for both mothers and babies was high!. childbirth was considered to be a woman's business, a woman in labour would be attended by her friends and female relatives and the midwife, men would not be expected to attend!. Tudor babies were normally breastfed for two years!. rich women would usually have their babies fed by wetnurses, rather than feeding them themselves!.

Some girls of the upper classes were educated by tutors like their brothers, and could be fluent in latin and Greek, as was elizabeth I!. They would also have learnt music, which was an important part of education in those days, and dancing, since music and dancing were popular with all classes!. Middle-class girls would mostly have been taught at home by their mothers, or attended elementary school with their brothers where they would learn to read and write in english!. But for girls of all classes, the most important part of their education would be learning to manage a household and the many skills that were required for that demanding job!. There were lots of books on household management for women produced during the Tudor period, which shows what a complex job it was, requiring a lot of different skills!.

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