From Wives to Widows in Early Modern Paris

Looking especially at widows of master craftsmen in early modern Paris, this study provides analysis of the social and cultural structures that shaped widows' lives as well as the experiences these women had in their day-to-day experience. It dramatically alters our understanding of gender; it also engages the historiographical issue of women's participation in the world of work, and explicitly examines the place of the law in the lived experience of the period.