Women and wage labour in rural Flanders in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

This article addresses women's participation and remuneration in the agricultural labour market in coastal Flanders during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An analysis of unique and unexplored late medieval farm accounts demonstrates that women's employment opportunities in this dynamic and commercial region had diminished by the middle of the sixteenth century. This article argues that demographic developments, which are usually considered to be the drivers of change in the debate about female wage labour in the centuries after the Black Death, cannot adequately explain the observed changes. The regional scope of this study enables it to demonstrate the complex and interrelated factors affecting women's prospects. These include (local) developments in population numbers, the type of rural economy (and related to this the agricultural techniques used), as well as the social and economic structure of rural society.