Alewife (trade)
[5] "Alewife" is now commonly used in translations of ancient texts to refer to any woman who brewed and sold ale dating back to the beginning of recorded history.
[8] Therefore, ale was produced in huge quantities by a relatively simple process that was widely known, although time intensive, most often using malted barley or oats.
[12] The lack of needed specialization and physical location within the home made ale brewing an accessible trade for women to add income to the household in both towns and countryside communities.
Because winemaking was a very involved process, and hopped beer had not yet spread from the Netherlands and Belgium, ale and hard cider became popular among the lower classes in Medieval England.
To turn a profit, early medieval women became "small-scale retailers" by selling goods they already produced for private consumption.
[24] Brewing and selling ale (also known as tippling or tapping) enabled women to work for and achieve "good profits, social power, and some measure of independence from men" that other trades at the time did not.
[26] Comparatively, brewing and tippling were predominantly female trades that women could operate independently or in equal conjunction with their husband.
[27][25] Due to these changes, the ale market transformed from an industry dominated by occasional, home-brewing married and non-married women to a commercialized, professionalized, and male-governed mainstream trade.
As a result, female brewers and alewives in the late 14th and 15th centuries faced one of two fates: greater profit, or marginalization within the trade.
[28] Women who managed to remain in the ale trade were usually married, widowed, or had unusual access to money and capital for a craftswoman.
[30] The expansion and professionalization of the trade less suited the short-term readily available jobs that women tended to take on while maintaining their roles as wives and mothers.
Unlike women, men had the legal, capital, social, and cultural resources to command a quickly commercializing industry.
Medieval records show some rare examples of permanent brewers with no mention of a husband (implying single status), including Emma Kempstere of Brigstock, Maud London of Oxford, and Margery de Brundall of Norwich who lived and brewed in the 14th and 15th centuries.
[38] Non-married brewsters typically brewed and sold their product from the home, as they lacked the legal or guild standing and money to have their own alehouse.
[19] By this time, many non-married women seeking to participate in brewing and the ale trade became tapsters, tipplers, and wageworkers in brewhouses for commercial male brewers.
[39] Married brewsters typically brewed in tandem with their husbands, as relatively equal partners in business and production.
The husband almost exclusively held the public responsibilities, including guild activity and serving as the legal representative of the establishment.
Poems such as John Skelton's The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng, The Tale of Beryn and Mother Bunch of Pasquil's Jests all depicted as repulsive figures.
[52] Whether laughed at with the alewives or against them, the language of these poems suggest that they were intended for a general public rather than exclusively the courts, making the popularity of the flawed alewife a common role of society.
