HIDDEN WOMEN: REDISCOVERING THE SINGLEWOMEN OF EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

Author/Creator

Date

2002

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Froide, A. M. “Hidden Women: Rediscovering Singlewomen in Early Modern England,” Local Population Studies 68 (Spring 2002): 26-41. http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS68/LPS68_2002_26-41.pdf

Rights

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Subjects

Abstract

Amy Froide attempts to estimate the proportion ofsingle (that is, never-married) women in the adult female populationusing the Marriage Duty assessments. Froide explains that various biasesin the Marriage Duty listings, not to mention some conventions adoptedby historical demographers, mean that, unless the analyst is careful,some adult ‘singlewomen’ will not be identified (mainly because theywill be classified as children). Using data from Southampton, she showsthat single women comprised at least one third of the adult femalepopulation of the city in the 1690s. More generally, a higher proportionof adult women was single, and a lower proportion married, in urbanareas than in the countryside. Indeed, in the towns for which data areavailable, fewer than half of the adult women were married.