In medieval times the census shows a sex ratio in the countryside that was heavily male-biased because so many women were “employed” in the castles and monasteries. Their jobs were those of serving maids of various kinds, but they formed a loose sort of “harem” whose size depended clearly on the wealth and power of the castle’s owner. In some cases historians and authors were more or less explicit in admitting that castles contained “gynoeciums,” where lived the owner’s harem in secluded luxury.
