ABSTRACT
My Lady. Goodwife. Mother. Old Dear. Bawd. Hag. Witch. Ranging from aristocratic to criminal, these are just some of the ways elderly women were addressed in early modern Europe. These terms also reflect the ways that old women were viewed by their friends and neighbours, from titled and respected members of the community to objects of questionable morals and outright horror. The act of reaching old age, clearly, did not render all women the same or equal. But why should it? Women of all types, nationalities, religions and dispositions grew old. These women’s final years reflected the full range of their life experiences, shaped by the cultural norms and expectations of their communities, great and small. In short, there were as many types of old women as there were women. Still, our historical understanding of elderly women does not yet reflect this complexity.
