n

Only the exodus from the home is new. We
have to do with an economic renaissance hark-
ing back, as we have said, to the very begin-
nings of German society. In the middle ages,
especially, women were prominent in the eco-
nomic scheme. The records show that they
were not excluded from any occupation. Spin-
ning and weaving were almost exclusively
women's work. Handicrafts were carried on



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174 THE ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE

with great expertness in the medieval cloisters,
an environment in which women f omid careers
as well as a religious retreat. They also fol-
lowed the intellectual occupations, as docu-
ments still in existence show. There were wom-
en physicians in Frankfurt am Main in the fif-
teenth century, women were members of the
guilds, and there were some guilds composed
entirely of women, with master-craf tswomen at
the head and girl apprentices. They were ac-
tive as silk-spinners and silk-weavers, yam-
spinners, gold-spinners, hat-makers and em-
broiderers ; in short, they were quite generally
engaged in the highly-skilled production of
apparel and tapestries of all kinds.
In the fourteenth century the guilds began
to exclude women and to limit their work.
