description: Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widows? An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows. 
language: English
title: Weaker Vessel: Woman's lot in seventeenth-century England
titlecomplete: Weaker Vessel: Woman's lot in seventeenth-century England
genres: Gender, Womens Studies, Biography, History, British Literature, Historical, Womens, Nonfiction, Feminism, 17th Century
ratings_count: 1376
awards: awardedAt: 441792000000
name: Wolfson History Prize
publisher: Alfred A. Knopf