I really didn't like this book. The only common thread of the stories in the book is that it's about seemingly unknown women from history/the Middle Ages.

I wish more research had gone into this work. It could have benefited from a more thorough streamlining edit as well, some of the stories seem disjointed.

"Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It" by Janina Ramirez is a fascinating exploration of the often-overlooked roles and contributions of women in the medieval period, particularly in Middle Ages Europe. Ramirez's book is engaging, thoroughly researched, and beautifully illustrated with images of objects, manuscripts, and carvings that help bring the women of the past to life. With around 40% of the book dedicated to references, bibliographies, and further reading, it's evident that this work is grounded in extensive scholarly research.

The book challenges the commonly held views about the role of women in history and uses the stories of ordinary and extraordinary women to illustrate that women in the Middle Ages were not powerless or without agency, as they are often portrayed. Ramirez provides an essential counter-narrative to the idea that women were universally oppressed and powerless in the past.

However, it's important to note that the book's subtitle, "A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It," might be somewhat misleading. The reader may expect a continuous historical narrative that covers a wide time span. Instead, the book presents isolated case studies, each focusing on different times and places, which may not directly connect to each other. The chapters act as evidence to dismantle the common stereotype of powerless women, and the book is less about a continuous history of Europe during the Middle Ages.

Ramirez takes a deep dive into the lives of women who had power and played diverse roles in medieval Europe. She also sheds light on the women who worked to bring these stories into modern scholarship and the deliberate efforts, often driven by patriarchal agendas, to erase and rewrite women's histories. It's a compelling argument against the prevailing narrative that women only gained power and agency during the cultural revolutions of the 20th century.

While the book offers a unique perspective on medieval history, some readers may find it helpful to have clearer expectations about the book's structure before diving in. Overall, "Femina" is an enlightening and well-researched examination of the overlooked stories of women in the Middle Ages, making it an essential read for anyone interested in women's history and the broader history of the medieval period.

Absolutely loved this book, and took a long time to savour it. Sorry to be so slow sending a review as a result.

This is a very in depth book, describing much of how women have neen viewed across the ages. A book to dip into at leisure.
It wasn't a book that I was able to read in one go, I needed others in between.

Presents very interesting findings and viewpoints on the Middle Ages. Women in the Middle Ages are often an overlooked group in popular history publications and this fills that gap. Interesting for both academic experts and the curious Everyman.

I have always enjoyed Janina Ramirez's appearance on TV & her ability to make history accessible for all. This is a book I've dipped in & out of for months. The author does a great job of drawing the attention to the women of the Middle Ages. It comes as a surprise to know that women were not such second class citizens & many had real power & knew what to do with it. A huge amount of research has gone into this book, yet it is never dry or boring. I don't think my Kindle was the ideal way to read this book as I missed out on the illustrations. It would make a good coffee table book with high quality illustrations.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book I learned a lot.

Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It … to give the book its full title. Sheds new light on the Middle Ages by looking at the lives of women. Janina Ramirez introduces us to Hildegard of Bingen, one of my favourite composers. Also here is Margery Kempe, Norfolk businesswoman and mystic and Jadwiga, King of Poland. Fascinating, thought, provoking history.

FEMINA is an examination of why commonly touted views about the role of women in history (focused on Middle Ages Europe) are wrong through the examples of ordinary and "extraordinary" women.

It is an engaging and well researched books, interspersed with images of objects, manuscripts, carvings, and more. About 40% of the total page count is made up from references, bibliographies, and further reading, to give an idea of the weight of scholarship behind in.

I feel like the strapline "A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It" is a little misleading. To me, that implies a book that covers a continuous time period, showing how Europe changed with time. Except that this history of Europe is female centric (like Alison Weir's England's Medieval Queens series, which narrates the turbulent history of 1066-1485 England through its queens.)

This book does not do this at all, which did take me a fair bit of time to adjust my expectations. It is instead more like a series of case studies that feel pretty isolated from one another (as they are set at different times and places and don't seem to impact one another.) Instead of a continuous history, they are evidence of why the typical present stereotype of an agentless, powerless woman is wrong.

I really enjoyed this essay like examination of these women in different spheres who show that women had power and a wide range of roles in Medieval Europe. The book also highlights the women who brought them to the attention of modern scholarship and the patriarchal agendas (often of the Victorians) that deliberately erased and reworked the women's stories. It more a book about why we shouldn't accept the "women were horribly oppressed and had no power and didn't want it until the cultural revolutions of the 20th century" narrative.

However, I would have liked this to be a bit clearer going in, to help me set my expectations. Expectations are so key to my enjoyment of books (and that this one did well despite this massive mismatch says a lot about FEMINA), and this was not at all the read I was expecting.

I found this book really interesting and enjoyed everything I learnt in it. I would recommend this to anyone and definitely any feminists.

A woman′s focus on medieval history. The author has taken advantage of recent academic and archeological discoveries to take a different view of the Dark Ages in Europe. Examination of existing texts shed light on named individuals, but finds in anonymous graves give background to their society.
She divides the book into chapters which are not so much job descriptions as roles in life, so that for example Artists can be paired with Patrons. This chapter gives a good example of how history can be influenced. Emma, the mother of Edward the Confessor, commissioned two histories. One praising Edward, the son of her first marriage to Edmund Ironside, the second praising Harthacnut her son with Cnut who had conquered England.
Emma was not a character I had come across before although other names such as Aethelflaed (Alfred the Great′s daughter), Julian of Norwich, Hildegard de Bingen are more familiar but put into the wider context of their contemporaries, both female and male.
This is an interesting book pulling together many diverse strands. The subtitle of ″A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It″ suggests more of a polemic than the actual book which reveals an age where women were more accepted and respected by men than our modern viewpoint has concluded.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley

Due to a family passing at the time, I was unable to download this in time before it was archived, and having only returned after several years away due to it severely affecting me, I am now working my way through those reviews I was unable to get to to detail the issue. Thank you for the opportunity, and I look forward to working with you in the future.

I'm a big fan of Janina Ramirez on Twitter and TV but new to her writing - thanks to NetGalley for granting me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise for this book - a kind of re-evaluation of what we think we know about the middle ages and a reinstatement of women within that historical narrative. Ramirez starts from the idea that actually we do know about some powerful and influential women from this time period, but that the dominant narrative of kings, battles and manly Vikings have erased them. When I saw 'we do know', I really mean that Ramirez knows - I didn't have a clue and was pleased to be introduced to some of history's forgotten women.

The book is divided into sections that cover different aspects of women's power in the medieval era, for example 'Warriors and Leaders', 'Artists and Patrons' and 'Entrepreneurs and Influencers'. Given Ramirez's background as an art historian, I was unsurprised (but very pleased) to see a focus on the visual arts - from the way that medieval women have been portrayed to the art created by the women themselves. In particular, I found the chapter discussing the female creators of the Bayeux Tapestry fascinating - especially the creative choices they made and the women included in the tapestry itself (which, yes, is actually an embroidery). The book is packed with illustrations too, something that is helpful for the reader unfamiliar with medieval art (like me).

One of the things that I really loved about the book was that it jumped between the middle ages (the forgotten women) and modern-day discoveries that have helped to uncover the history. There's also lots about how this era of history continues to impact today's world - the fact that the book started with the story of Emily Wilding Davison, suffragette and medievalist, won me over instantly. I had no idea that Davison's (possibly intentional, maybe accidental) death in front of the King's horse at the 1913 Derby could be connected to her studies of medievalism and her vision of fighting a new oppression - she viewed the medieval era as a time when women had more freedom than the misogynist Edwardian age she lived in. A totally new perspective on a famous moment in suffragette history. All fascinating and a bit heartbreaking, to be honest.

It's worth saying that I listened to the audiobook alongside my reading of the book. The audiobook is narrated really well by Ramirez herself and it really brings the work to life. I'd recommend the recording wholeheartedly, although you do obviously miss out on the illustrations along the way. .

For readers interested in the medieval era and women's history, this is a must. It's tragic that history often doesn't include women as 'women's history' really shouldn't be a separate thing, but here we are. The medieval era isn't my usual area of interest, but this book covers some really interesting ground and I'm really glad I picked it up. It's meticulously- researched, engagingly-written and often fascinating and inspirational.

Found this book very heavy going so didn't actually finish it which was disappointing since I had such high hopes for it.

This is the history I wish I'd had in high school and college! I hadn't heard about these histories and I felt both angry that they'd been suppressed, and empowered that they existed. Thank you for the ARC!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Random House for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting look into women in the medieval period. I liked that LGBTQ+ and women of colour were mentioned, but felt there could have been more of a focus on them.

This is a fascinating book, rewriting the rewritten history that was interpreted by the patriarchy.

It was an interesting read, however, I did find it rather long. With chapters lasting apx 50mins according to my Kindle, I would sometimes find it a bit of a slog to get to the end (I hate finishing a day’s reading mid chapter).

Other people have said they were disappointed that only a handful of women were covered. This didn’t bother me, but I did feel that the book was too much like essays for a periodical, rather than a historical non-fiction read.

Overall, well worth reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Femina” is a stark reminder of just how much of the history of the human race is missing, incomplete, or just plain wrong – all because women weren’t considered all that important. It makes for fascinating reading, but left me with a sadness for everything we’ve lost.

Ramirez tells the stories of those who were lucky enough, and important enough, to escape this selective re-telling. This is “herstory” through and through. Most of the stories were new to me and opened my eyes to the place of women in the past. The author has the character singing off the page and many of the women’s behaviours are repeated in many of the stories here and shows why it was time for Dr Ramirez to reflect again on women and history.

“Scrutinize how you have been taught, ask questions about what stories you’re not hearing,” for “it is our responsibility to think about how we want it (history) recorded and remembered.”

A readable well written book and recommended if you’re looking to explore history from a different perspective.

This book has an amazing blurb that really intrigued me and it delivers on its dust cover promise. However, I found it a very heavy and academic read which made it difficult to struggle through. Not unenjoyable, but a real trudge to finish.

I did come away feeling I had learned a lot, but not that I had truly enjoyed the process.

Grab this book for a bedside table or commuter read. Take a chapter at a time and give yourself time to absorb the info.

This was a truly interesting read from Janina Ramirez. Making me stop to think over the tales of the women almost written out of history, if not for Ramirez, I often found myself reflecting on *how did what they do influence us now* and the answers were sometimes a little more profound than I initially expected.

From Decision makers, to Vikings & Valkyries, to female Kings this book covered it all in an accessible, approachable way.

This was a fantastic and informative read. Ramirez adopted an easy, accessible style while also conveying a depth of research, and I enjoyed the combination of factual evidence, discoveries and more descriptive writing to ground is in the time. The only thing I wish the book had done was take a broader view of women during the medieval period, because as fascinating as it was to read about the women featured, it would have been great to have a wider context and to see more variety in the women that were featured.