Woman occupations in the Elizabethan era?

Question

I have a project for my English class that requires dressing up like someone from the Elizabethan era and giving a presentation on their life. We're allowed to create people and give them occupations and names. The only problem is I can't find anything about woman occupations between the 11th and 15th centuries, all the sources I've found have stated that women were considered inferior and therefore couldn't be hired. If anyone knows of any woman occupations or names from the Elizabethan era--it would be much appreciated!!

Also: was a seamstress a possible job?

Answer 1

Believe it or not, some women were artists, poets, and writers- there just were not that many. Also, women were maids, nuns and abesses. Some were ladies-in-waiting, which isn't really a profession, but had it's rewards. They were also prostitues... the oldest profession :P

Some Elizabethan names:
Mary
Francs
Anne
Katherine
Margaret
Grace
Constance
Martha
Susan
Isabell
Jane

Answer 2

The answer depends on who you read. Feminist historians will tell you that women had no choices in the work they did, but that men had a wide range of choices. Proper historians will list the type of occupations that women could choose e.g. brewing, money lending, retail, cloth making, and many other jobs. Note that men's roles often involved more dangerous work e.g. soldiering, mining, construction, fisherman etc. and not a great deal of choice e.g. drafted to war or following the family trade.

Answer 3

fishmongers were many times the wives of fishermen who would take the excess of fish caught beyond family consumption and sell it to the non-fishing families of the towns!1the fish had a very short shelf life ;and there was no refrigeration except in the icy blasts of winter;when generally boats would sometimes not even dare to venture forth to fish!!smoked fish became a very good way to preserve the fish for longer periods from viking times onward and a great industry evolved overtime in this sometimes pricy commodity in the countries of northern climes!!as little game was available and there was much more effort expending getting it in the foul weather on land with deer,rabbits,and other food animals than in the more clement spring and summers!!smoked fish became for many a staple foodstuff!!fivewives would call out to potential customers"cockles,clams and fish...alive,alive oh!!"trying to sell the fresh fish as soon as possile!!"poisson" the french word for fish may have even given rise to the term "poison"as it was sometimes often tantamount to taking poison to eat fish gone bad or caught too near shore ;as is also a prevalent concern, even today,with "reef-caught" fish in polynesia!!baskets would be employed to carry the fish from the beach into the towns and sometimes lively stable markets developed where a steady catch could always be assured!!japan and new york,boston and other modern cities have very viable and reknowned fish markets of a world-class calibre today feeding not only their local populations but entire regions near their ports and fishmarkets!!lobsters,mussels,clams and squid ,today are sometimes flown coast-to-coast!these foodstuffs would have been also taded in elizabethan times by the "fishwives"

Answer 4

Simple peasant woman gathering grain, washing clothes, cooking gruel.

Answer 5

maid, children's caregiver, cook, kitchen help, barmaid, whore, candlemaker, queen's lady-in-waiting.