Marta REDONDO DE FUENMAYOR

Original title: Construyendo la ciudad: el rol femenino en la edilicia bajomedieval

Published in Mirabilia Journal 

Keywords: Architecture, Construction, Jobs on the construction site, Late Middle Ages, Women, Workshops.

Transgressors or submissive to established norms, women have been active subjects of architectural practice throughout history. This was the case in the Middle Ages, with its well-known patriarchal societies, where a clear hierarchy of the public, dominated by men, over the private, the place of women, was evident. Thus, it seems unthinkable to some that a percentage of the hands that built the great medieval buildings belonged to the gender relegated to the intimacy of the home. But nothing could be further from the truth: historical experiences show that medieval construction was a phenomenon of shared jurisdiction. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to make visible the role of women as construction workers. The starting point will be a bibliographical review, which reveals the dispersion, scarcity, and limited visibility that this subject has had in traditional historiography. On this basis, we will analyse the regulatory documents, builindg logs, statutes of professional guilds and municipal ordinances, as primary sources that have facilitated the understanding of the role of women within the social hierarchies established in the late medieval period. Subsequently, a general overview will be given of the activities carried out in the construction process, both the tasks on site and those carried out in trades and workshops. The starting point for this is the analysis of graphic and written sources. The images that accompany this chapter, unusually considered when dealing with the subject, support the documentation and become a magnificent exponent of the visual culture of the Middle Ages. Finally, the female stipend in construction work will be analysed, making it possible to ascertain the place of women in the late medieval building industry.