Why feminism didn't exist in the medieval world

15th-Century Feminist | Interview | May 2025

Dear History Writers,

I am delighted to bring to you today an interview with one of my favourite colleagues here on Substack,

15thCenturyFeminist

. We talk about her bold choice of name for her newsletter, the existence (or not?!) of feminism in the medieval world, women achieving great things past the age of 40, and so much more!

It’s a long one, so I’d advise getting hold of a big cup of coffee (or whatever else takes your fancy!) before settling down to enjoy Kate’s wonderful approach to writing history.

All the best as always,

Holly

Editor, The Society of History Writers

Kate, thank you so much for agreeing to chat with the Society of History Writers! Your newsletter was one of the first history-focused Substacks I came across when I first joined, and you have been such a support to me in my own writing over at Medieval Musings.

Holly - I am so grateful to be virtually connected to you! I love your research and your efforts to place women back into the early middle ages narrative. It is so important! Thank you for including me and for offering such thoughtful questions.

I have a few questions of my own plus a few from subscribers, but firstly, would you mind briefly introducing yourself to us?

Hello lovely reader! My name is Kate Wagner and I am the writer behind the

15thCenturyFeminist

Substack. For the last 15 years my day job has been in Instructional Design with a focus on Universal Design Theory—essentially creating training that is, from the start, accessible to as many people as possible. Universal Design Theory is predicated upon the idea that if accessibility is baked into the build-out of educational materials rather than a check list item to ensure later—or worse, relying wholly on self advocation from the learner—then it’ll be usable/accessible by the most people possible. Meeting folks where they are with their specific, diverse human needs. I personally believe that a more equitable future can not be achieved if we don’t first acknowledge, and make intentional space for, the broad spectrum that is the human experience, so I’ve tried to align my professional pathways with my personal belief pillars—moving on when they don’t quite jive.

All of this has been accomplished at the international level all the way down to the community grass-roots level. Most recently I worked with a non-profit that created safe learning environments for girls who were forced to endure multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that had then impacted their educational pathways.

And they say you can’t use an English Lit degree out in the real world! (Solidarity to every english lit major and the post-education indecision that follows.)

While I was in school, I was fortunate enough to write my thesis under two medievalists and one early modern scholar who specialized in literature created during plague years. It was the most delightfully disgusting education and I was absolutely enthralled by the medieval world then and there. It has been a reading passion of mine since obtaining my degree in 2010, but a few years ago I set out to create a biographical narrative of a missing medieval matriarch. She’s in the record… but she also isn’t. This introduced me to so many women I wanted to witness with nowhere to do so outside of my own annotations. Then an author I support introduced their new email list through an application called Substack, and here we are!

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Your newsletter is called ‘15th Century Feminist’ - an example of one of the clearest declarations of what a publication is about in its title. Did you always know that you wanted to write feminist histories of the 15th century, or is your historical interest more broad than this?

I so appreciate you saying this, though to be transparent, I inadvertently had made myself a pen-name while trying to create the name of my newsletter. I wasn’t sure of the difference in the query, intending to go back later and fix whichever I had done incorrectly. But the 15thCenturyFeminist had stuck by then, having been received warmly, so I decided to leave it as is to avoid confusion. Both my name and image are within various newsletters of mine, so the goal wasn’t to be anonymous, but the anonymity has afforded me some protections to be sure when considering mere existence on social media platforms.

I am absolutely a medievalist at heart! My focus of study was literature produced during plague years, and with the printing press firmly influencing the events of the 15th century, I find myself drawn to that time period and spend much of my research time within it. However, my subject-matter—who lived in the 15th C—is of an ancient lineage which has introduced me to literature heretofore outside of my scope. It has been an absolute adventure and I sometimes wonder if I’m writing her story so slowly because I am savoring it so? But one day it’ll be out in the world!

As a feminist, I think it would have been hard to create outside of that bias. We all have inherited and learned biases that influence how we navigate and perceive the world (including the information we process). My interest lies in the stories not favored within patriarchal histories—which so often intentionally excluded and maligned women. We only need to look at the dispossession and villainization of the Priest’s Wife within the Gregorian period for an example of how quickly women within a patriarchal social context can be marginalized within the historical annals and literature alike (and those were women that had prior been afforded many privileges!).¹ I find I stay quite busy seeking stories of the late middle ages where women could be repositioned as the main character of the narrative. Not to dispossess the men of the story, but to rightfully move the women from object to subject within their own narratives.

What does a feminist approach to writing history mean to you?

Acknowledging the inherited bias of assumed male supremacy which a patriarchal social context is predicated upon, and investigating how those biases have impacted the stories we’ve been told.

As a woman writing in 2025, I have the honor of standing on the shoulders of giants, dating all the way back to (at least) the turn of the 15th century. But to properly respond to both this and the following question, I think clarifying language may be necessary. When I say I am a feminist, I practice the type of feminism taught by bell hooks—a feminism which seeks to end systemic, institutionalized sexism (patriarchy). A feminism which seeks to end all modes of domination and question the dominant culture. A feminism which seeks to free all humans—women et al.—from hierarchical realities, exploitation, and oppression.

I write history purposefully inclusive of contemporary literature, but I believe in the above, and that very much informs my writing.

Many writers recently have been bold in declaring that feminism didn’t exist in the medieval world. What do you think about this? Does it matter, for the feminist writer, whether it existed then or not?

I think they’re right! The language and intellectual frameworks of feminism did not exist in the medieval world; to imply otherwise would absolutely be anachronistic. But to imply that folks weren’t questioning the dominant culture; that women weren’t seeking realities beyond domination; that the lowest classes didn’t challenge imposed exploitation—which are all feminist actions—is not simply anachronistic, but historically inaccurate. Two truths can exist at any one moment, the human experience is quite expansive. Feminism as a polemic paradigm did not exist, but a proto-feminism which challenged the dominant culture of imperialist patriarchy at individual levels did exist, and has so since the inception of imposed hierarchies and enforced male supremacy.² As second wave feminist Marilyn French noted, “subjugation generates resentment,” and there has been much subjugation under patriarchy.³

When Christine de Pizan sat to compose The Book of the City of the Ladies (1405), she was seeking to reinstate women into their rightful place within the historical annals while flexing a deep knowledge of literary devices. She was also critiquing the harm imposed by the ideologies of the dominant culture (patriarchy). Just prior to penning her proto-feminist masterpiece, Christine had very publicly engaged in a debate (1401) on the disgusting literary treatment of women within the popular Roman de la Rose, imploring the very highest seat of patriarchal governance, queen regent Isabeau of Bavaria, to take action—which she did!⁴

Women advocating on behalf of women within a patriarchal society is a long held practice—long before words such as ‘feminism’ or ‘intersectionality’ existed. Hauled in front of French judges in the Autumn of 1322, Jacqueline Felice de Almania fought for women’s personhood and agency in an argument she likely knew was long lost.

“In her own defense, Felicie argued fervently for the right of wise and experienced-even if unlicensed-women to care for the sick. With even more spirit she asserted that it was improper for men to palpate the breasts and abdomens of women; indeed, out of modesty, women might prefer death from an illness to revealing intimate secrets to a man.”⁵

We can now classify these individual acts as proto-feminist because we possess the language and intellectual frameworks to do so, but doing so doesn’t imply some anachronistic inception of feminist polity and I think folks often conflate the two.

In my opinion, the role of the feminist writer, especially the feminist historian, is to challenge the harmful narratives of the dominant culture. And though the women of the medieval world would have never thought of themselves as feminists, their works can be perceived through such paradigms as they inform our own patriarchal reality.

A beautiful ode to medieval women, you published a list of ‘40 over 40’ towards the end of 2024: 40 medieval women who achieved amazing feats past the age of 40. If you had to pick just one of these women to shine a spotlight on, who would she be and why?

That is so very kind of you to say, thank you! I love this question as I am already doing just that—my subject-matter, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, is on that list! I don’t want to give away too much, but I love any opportunity to talk about this powerhouse of a woman who is almost always maligned within patriarchal histories.

Throughout her life Jacquetta constantly defied the implication that women existed exclusively within the private domain. Her contemporaries—of all genders—not only sought out her authoritative presence, they made record of it in manifestos and court documentations alike. She of course lived within the socialized gender realities of her day, providing her warrior husband with a whole lot (!) of heirs placing her firmly within the private sphere often, but she was also the ‘bread winner’ much of their relationship and had a clear influence over her children’s perceptions of imposed gendered behaviors. There was a long history, dating back to the mythological, of the women of Jacquetta’s bloodline raising the men in their lives to social prominence.⁶

There are many ways in which feminist networks and influences reveal themselves, and the transfer and encouragement of feminist learning to offspring is one of them. In Susan G. Bell’s influential essay ‘Medieval Women Book Owners’, she outlines the power lay women held as “ambassadors of culture” through the extensive bequeathing of both religious and secular manuscripts, with a special emphasis on vernacular literature. As recipient of the complete library of the regent of France—including multiple works of one Christine de Pizan—Jacquetta was in a unique position to litter England with influential literature through the prominent marriages achieved by her children, and that is exactly what happened.⁷

Her son, Anthony Woodville, would go on to translate further works of Christine de Pizan’s into English—even becoming a patron of the printing press to ensure productions of such texts could occur. So important were these texts to their owners that both Anthony and Jacquetta’s inscriptions can be found within various works of Christine’s.⁸

In a translation of Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, we are offered a glimpse into a possible (proto)feminist paradigm held by Anthony. We know of this incident as it is preserved within the epilogue by the printer William Caxton, who takes care to denote Anthony’s behavior as a deviation from patriarchal expectations, and perhaps even a mistake—ultimately making jest of his views. Anthony, firm in his decision, had intentionally left out pieces of the text that he felt were a misrepresentation of women’s nature. Alongside insinuating that Socrates had purposefully employed harmful propaganda against women, these actions could indicate an internal proto-feminism emerging within a family unit.

Writing history in such a way allows me to share incredible women of the past while challenging “the hegemony of the history of the powerful.”⁹ And to me, that feels like a good way to honor women such as Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Christine de Pizan, and Jacqueline Felice de Almania.

Ok, over to subscriber questions…

1. Lila Krishna
   asks: ‘I want to understand how the paid vs marketing stuff works - if your content is free, you get more eyes on it, but then people don't pay. If you paywall your content, people pay but few people look at it at all. How do you manage this tradeoff?’

I fear I am not the right person to answer this. All of my content remains free and my subscription option is support if you can, but that is a conscious choice as equitable access to education is guiding pillar of mine.

2. Holli McCormick
   asks: ‘Did you use any other social media platforms to grow your readership on Substack?’

No. All growth has been organic through reader sharing and the Substack app. Early on I had a companion instagram, but that was far too much work and I found the focus on the one application allowed me to spend more intentional time on it. I plan to remain off of all other social platforms; one is enough for me. I will say I have found a lot of growth through utilizing Notes in a non-Twitter way: posting longer form notes that are almost little appetizers of my posts, sharing medieval artwork, etc., has worked well, according to the metrics.

3. Suzanne Uttaro Samuels
   asks: ‘As someone who writes about 19th and early 20th century Sicily (a very different world, for sure), I'm interested in finding out how you get readers to care about people living such different experiences.’

Based on feedback I would say that readers of my work tend to be more drawn into the topic if I can make an obvious parallel observation of a present moment. A ‘how did we get here?’ type question that informs the reader’s lived experiences tends to do better—in terms of metrics—than a stand alone biographical narrative devoid of an authorial voice. (Not at all implying that happens in your writing, but it does in mine if I’m not careful!)

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Thank you so much Kate! Where can readers find you, on and off Substack, and are there any particular Substack posts that you’ve written that you’d like to draw their attention to?

I’m only on Substack, but I’m grateful for any time readers choose to spend with my words!

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This is one of the first in a new monthly series of interviews with history writers on Substack. Long-time readers will know that a key focus here is promoting and supporting writers from complete newbie to experienced published author, and this series of interviews will reflect that. I have some wonderful writers lined up and I can’t wait to share their words with you!

Amy McElroy: getting published, obsessing over Tudors, & Henry VIII vs. the Church

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1. Dyan Elliott’s Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, & Demonology in the Middle Ages (1999) has an incredibly insightful and investigative chapter on this very topic.

2. Angela Saini’s The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule is a fantastic exploration of the forced institution of patriarchal ideology

3. Marilyn French, The War against Women

4. To start, you should absolutely read Rosalind Brown-Grant’s translation of The Book of the City of Ladies, and Thelma S. Fenster’s translation of The Book of The Duke of True Lovers to witness Christine deftly challenge the dominant culture. Susan G. Bell’s The Lost Tapestries of the City of ladies: Christine de Pizan’s Renaissance legacy investigates the long, but lost, influence of Christine’s iconic (and popular!) imagery produced within her rich texts.

5. WL Minkowski’s Women healers of the middle ages: selected aspects of their history is very informative here. I also wrote more on Jacqueline Felice de Almania in the post mentioned below.

6. Jean d’Arras’ The Noble History of Lusignan; Jacquetta’s own marriage with Richard Woodville who later became Earl Rivers; Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage to Edward IV, which promoted her entire family; And though Henry VII earned his crown on the battlefield, his marriage to Elizabeth of York, Jacquetta’s granddaughter, afforded him prestige in time of uncertainty.

7. Elizaveta Strakhov and Sarah Wilma Watson’s Behind Every Man(uscript) Is a Woman: Social Networks, Christine de Pizan, and Westminster Abbey, MS 21

8. Ibid. And Sarah Wilma Watson’s Jacquetta of Luxembourg – A Female Reader of Christine de Pizan in England.

9. Gerda Lerner, Why History Matters: Life and Thought. (1997)