Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7314
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Farmer , Sharon.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Poor Men, the Stigma of Poverty, and the Burdens of Masculinity
  • Source: Gender and Conflict in the Middle Ages. Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, York, January 5-7 2001.. 2001.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Conference Paper Abstract
  • Subject (See Also): Charity Masculinity Poverty Work
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: General
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: This paper examines the dilemmas confronted by poor young men who lost their laboring capacity. Manual labor was at the heart of definitions of masculinity for men from the poorer strata. Indeed, expectations that boys and men should work led to very different patterns of male and female migration, with boys leaving home much earlier than girls or women. Because dependency and the failure to work violated expectations of who these men should be, there was a great deal of discomfort with, and hesitancy to assist, boys and men from the laboring strata of society who were unable to work. Needy boys and men constituted less attractive objects of charitable giving than did needy women and able-bodied workers. Very few formal charites addressed the needs of disabled men/boys, thus many of them had to survive on informal alms. [Reproduced by permission of the Gender and Medieval Studies Conference organizers].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2001.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: Not Available