1. Introduction -- 2. Marital status as a category of difference : singlewomen and widows -- 3. Single but not alone : the family history of never-married women -- 4. A maid is not always a servant : singlewomen in the urban economy -- 5. Women of independent means : the civic significance of never-married women -- 6. Spinsters, superannuated virgins, and old maids : representations of singlewomen -- 7. The question of choice : how never-married women represented singleness -- 8. Epilogue
Summary
A book of original research on the women who never married in early modern England, this text looks at how singlewomen's lives differed from those of wives and widows, at the social relationships of women without husbands, and at how these women supported themselves
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-242) and index