Edinburgh’s Unruly Women Gender, Discipline, and Power, 1560-1660

Free Download Claire McNulty, "Edinburgh’s Unruly Women: Gender, Discipline, and Power, 1560-1660 "
English | ISBN: 1032492120 | 2025 | 174 pages | PDF | 2 MB
Edinburgh’s Unruly Women examines experiences of church discipline across parish communities through Edinburgh and its environs. The book argues that experiences of discipline were not universal, varying according to any number of factors such as age, gender, marital status, and social rank.

Adopting a case study approach, the book illuminates the voices of ordinary women as they appeared before their local kirk session (church court) where they navigated the church court system to settle neighbourly disputes, negotiate marriage contracts, or free their husbands from allegations of adultery. Edinburgh’s Unruly Women argues that in the context of a deeply patriarchal society, experiences of discipline could not have been universal, but that in creating this strict culture of self-monitoring, the Church created opportunities for women to express power over one another, and indeed, over their male contemporaries.
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