Keynote Address: Women’s Lives and Roles in France from Merovingian Gaul to the Age of Absolutism

This talk highlights shifts in the social, economic, and religious opportunities available to French women from the era of Merovingian Gaul throughout the middle ages and up to the 17th century. What legal and social restrictions did rural and urban women face, and how did they carve out "wiggle room" for themselves in light of social and familial expectations about their roles and responsibilities?

Info on speaker:
Dr. Stacey R. Davis is Professor of History at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, where she currently teaches classes like Gender History: Medieval and Early Modern Europe. She studied history as an undergraduate at Princeton and received her Ph.D. in French history from Yale University. Professor Davis' archival research focuses on collective memory and how common people craft narratives of their lives in light of both their personal desires and larger social expectations and realities.