DEVIL’S SNARE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1932, Page 7

DEVIL’S SNARE

WOMAN IN THE MIDDLE AGES. INTERESTING ADDRESS. CHRISTCHURCH, December 12. '’three gifts ha® God given to women—spinning, sweeping and deceit.” That wa.s the flattering opinion lieild by men in mediaval times concerning their sex, so Dr. Winifred Harvard told members cf the Business and Profc isional Women’s Round Table Club at their luncheon this afternoon, during the course of a witty address on “The Medieval Housewife.”

“I believe it is a journalistic commonplace that ‘woman is always news,’ ” said Dr. Haward. “That was as true five centuries ago as it is today, only five centuries ago woman was not able to say much on the subject. Her critics had the field to themselves.”

It was fairly well agreed among preachers and moralists said Dr. Haward, that women were a snare of the devil, sent to distract men from more serious ends. On the other hand by the followers of chivalry women was set on a pedestal and worshipped almost as a goddess. Dr. Haward said that somewhere behind this scathing denunciation and extravagant flattery linked the medieval woman. But when it came to finding out-what she was really like, it was a question of piecing together scraps and fragments. 'The speaker read some interesting extracts from the writings of Christine de Pisane, who in 1406 wrote the hook of “The Three Virtues.” In this, her chief point regarding, the accomplishments expected of women of high estate was that they should be capable of replacing their husbands and taking over the complete management of the estate. Dr. Haward said that this partnership' in work ran (through other classes ,of .society. In the towns although craftsmen were jealous of the competition cf women, who were strictly excluded from carrying out most crafts on their own account, an exception was nearly always recognised in the case of the wife or. daughter of the craftsman. Often these women must have worked with their own and must have often known almost as much about the business as their husbands. • It was a special practice for a widow to ruii the business in her own name after her husband’s death.