Shakespeare mentions “housewife” in his works 14 times, including to identify both a “good housewife” as well as a “false housewife.” These descriptions appear alongside one accusation that a woman was being someone’s “franklin’s housewife.”
As an essential part of daily living in Shakespeare’s England, I wanted to track down exactly what was involved in being a 16-17th century housewife, and there was no one better suited to give us the details than Jane Whittle, author of Women’s Work in Rural England, 1500-1700.
Jane joins us today to help us explore the 16th century definition of an English housewife, including the nature, jobs, and reputation were for this position, as well as to help us understand the history behind Shakespeare’s use of that term in his plays.
About Jane Whittle
Jane Whittle is professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Exeter. She has published numerous books and articles illuminating in the history of everyday life in late medieval and early modern England. Recently her research as focused on the history of work, and particularly women’s work.
What We Talk About
- What the term “wife” actually means, and how it doesn’t always mean a married woman
- Good housewife versus “false housewife”
- What did Shakespeare mean when he wrote about a “franklin’s housewife”?
- …and more!
Recommended Resources:
Jane Whittle, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb and Taylor Aucoin, The Experience of Work in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2025). This book is available to read, free of cost, here:https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/experience-of-work-in-early-modern-england/065F5D5FF2F9A59900F92CCE44EB91DF
Jane Whittle, ‘A critique of approaches to “domestic work”: women, work and the preindustrial economy’,Past and Present Journal, 243 (2019).
Jane Whittle and Elizabeth Griffiths, Consumption and Gender in the Early Seventeenth-Century Household: The World of Alice Le Strange (Oxford University Press, 2012).
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