Whereas, in the Middle Ages, like their male counterparts, European women could access a great range of professions, as Silvia Federici points out: “In the medieval towns, women worked as smiths, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, hat-makers, ale-brewers, wool-carders and retailers.”93 In England, “seventy-two out of eighty-five guilds counted women among their members” and some were “dominated” by them.
