SINGLE WOMEN IN EARLY-MODERN ENGLAND - ATTITUDES AND EXPECTATIONS

Notwithstanding prescriptive literature: the laity in early modern Eng land did not see marriage as the expectation for all women. Catholic a nd Protestant views on marriage and celibacy were ambiguous, and model s of women as daughters and servants allowed evasion of the problem of whether women could live appropriately without the authority of a hus band. The flexibility facilitated a response which accepted economic s upport for the single woman and allowed age to define female adulthood , though legacies to daughters were still more often timed in terms of marriage. Models of single women may have changed over time: from dau ghters semi-sustained by their families to more independent individual s defined by occupation.