Women's experiences of epidemics

Chapter 6 suggests that female experiences of epidemic disease in the preindustrial Low Countries were often harsh and burdensome. Women often experienced imposed restrictions or losses of fortune—some of which were parallel to men, but others were accentuated or distinctive down gender lines. Although women could adapt to new conditions presented by significantly raised mortality, it is unclear whether new roles or the opening of access to untapped resources truly benefitted women, or rather, women were able to secure and keep hold of this wealth or status. Nevertheless, mirroring more general observations about social resistance in Chapter 4, women in the preindustrial Low Countries often used epidemic disease as a vehicle for pushing back against perceived restrictions—and were at the forefront of most violent epidemic protests. Such an observation is important when we consider the spikes in domestic abuse and violence towards women seen during our recent experiences of COVID-19—and reminds us that all developments need to be contextually explained and temporally compared rather than assumed to be inevitable expressions of a form of behaviour.