Knowing how : Estate Management, Practical Knowledge, and Agency among Aristocratic Women in Early Modern Sweden
(2023) In Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 17(2). p.328-353- Abstract
- In the seventeenth Century, Swedish aristocratic women successfully acted as managers of landed estates, mills and iron works, and exerted agency in politics. Making qualified decisions and overseeing complex enterprises, their actions in many ways contradicted the prevailing patriarchal ideology. While explanations for this agency have stressed several intersecting factors, the role of learning and practical knowledge has been less developed. In this article, we argue that the interaction between female landowners and male estate managers was an arena for informal learning – in many ways resembling apprenticeship – which underpinned agency for female members of the early modern Swedish aristocracy. Taking the conditions of their... (More)
- In the seventeenth Century, Swedish aristocratic women successfully acted as managers of landed estates, mills and iron works, and exerted agency in politics. Making qualified decisions and overseeing complex enterprises, their actions in many ways contradicted the prevailing patriarchal ideology. While explanations for this agency have stressed several intersecting factors, the role of learning and practical knowledge has been less developed. In this article, we argue that the interaction between female landowners and male estate managers was an arena for informal learning – in many ways resembling apprenticeship – which underpinned agency for female members of the early modern Swedish aristocracy. Taking the conditions of their aristocratic upbringing and education into consideration, we claim that this interaction furthered female agency and created opportunities as well as expectations. The article highlights that agentic gender norms must be taken into consideration when assessing the competencies of early modern, female land- and estate owners. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b26c3a34-8546-4671-b477-79048731b074
- author
- Nilsson Hammar, Anna LU and Norrhem, Svante LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-05-05
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 26 pages
- publisher
- University of Maryland
- DOI
- 10.1086/723377
- project
- Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge
- The Household as Academy
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b26c3a34-8546-4671-b477-79048731b074
- date added to LUP
- 2021-03-16 09:01:56
- date last changed
- 2023-06-26 07:52:13
@article{b26c3a34-8546-4671-b477-79048731b074, abstract = {{In the seventeenth Century, Swedish aristocratic women successfully acted as managers of landed estates, mills and iron works, and exerted agency in politics. Making qualified decisions and overseeing complex enterprises, their actions in many ways contradicted the prevailing patriarchal ideology. While explanations for this agency have stressed several intersecting factors, the role of learning and practical knowledge has been less developed. In this article, we argue that the interaction between female landowners and male estate managers was an arena for informal learning – in many ways resembling apprenticeship – which underpinned agency for female members of the early modern Swedish aristocracy. Taking the conditions of their aristocratic upbringing and education into consideration, we claim that this interaction furthered female agency and created opportunities as well as expectations. The article highlights that agentic gender norms must be taken into consideration when assessing the competencies of early modern, female land- and estate owners.}}, author = {{Nilsson Hammar, Anna and Norrhem, Svante}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{05}}, number = {{2}}, pages = {{328--353}}, publisher = {{University of Maryland}}, series = {{Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal}}, title = {{Knowing how : Estate Management, Practical Knowledge, and Agency among Aristocratic Women in Early Modern Sweden}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/723377}}, doi = {{10.1086/723377}}, volume = {{17}}, year = {{2023}}, }