Sex and the Abbey by
Hrotsvit, the first known western female playwright, was a secular canoness in 10th Century Saxony who lived in Gandersheim Abbey. Far from being cloistered environments dedicated exclusively to religious pursuit, these abbeys were fertile communities for the education and socialization of well-to-do women and girls, some of whom were destined for marriage, as they grappled with their place in a broader society...
Hrotsvit, the first known western female playwright, was a secular canoness in 10th Century Saxony who lived in Gandersheim Abbey. Far from being cloistered environments dedicated exclusively to religious pursuit, these abbeys were fertile communities for the education and socialization of well-to-do women and girls, some of whom were destined for marriage, as they grappled with their place in a broader society that saw them merely as tokens for transactional unions. Likely, these were the only places that smart, modern women could be themselves. But that doesn’t mean they were free.