Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Europe, early modern, bodies, family, gender, marriage, motherhood, reproduction, sexuality
Abstract
In early modern England, infertility was considered a stain on a woman’s reputation. Medical literature, popular ballads and even defamation cases all indicate that an infertile woman could be considered promiscuous, lustful and dominating of her husband. In fact, a woman who had failed to become a mother was considered less than a woman.
Men could also be considered infertile in this period, and they could also fail to participate in the reproductive process because of impotence. The distinction between these two categories was crucial for legal reasons: an impotent man could not consummate a marriage, but a childless marriage that had been consummated was valid. However, in the cultural world of the period the distinction between impotence and infertility was often vague, because the crucial factor was not whether a man could perform sexually, but whether he could impregnate his wife. Thus, childless men were also associated with negative character traits and were considered unmanly.
In other words, reproduction was central to the gendered identity of married couples in this period, and infertility caused a breakdown of gender norms. This is evident by the fact that there is a large collection of literature in this period which implies that even when an infertile woman conceived, this was the result of adultery. This claim reified the idea that “barren” women were lustful, but also emasculated the husband by suggesting that he had failed to impregnate his wife and that he could not control her as a man should.
Keywords
Infertility, impotence, gender, motherhood, fatherhood, early modern England
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Infertility and Immorality: Stigmas against Infertile Women in Early Modern England
In early modern England, infertility was considered a stain on a woman’s reputation. Medical literature, popular ballads and even defamation cases all indicate that an infertile woman could be considered promiscuous, lustful and dominating of her husband. In fact, a woman who had failed to become a mother was considered less than a woman.
Men could also be considered infertile in this period, and they could also fail to participate in the reproductive process because of impotence. The distinction between these two categories was crucial for legal reasons: an impotent man could not consummate a marriage, but a childless marriage that had been consummated was valid. However, in the cultural world of the period the distinction between impotence and infertility was often vague, because the crucial factor was not whether a man could perform sexually, but whether he could impregnate his wife. Thus, childless men were also associated with negative character traits and were considered unmanly.
In other words, reproduction was central to the gendered identity of married couples in this period, and infertility caused a breakdown of gender norms. This is evident by the fact that there is a large collection of literature in this period which implies that even when an infertile woman conceived, this was the result of adultery. This claim reified the idea that “barren” women were lustful, but also emasculated the husband by suggesting that he had failed to impregnate his wife and that he could not control her as a man should.