34: Women and Wool Working in the Ancient Roman Empire, Part 1

In the first of two episodes on
Morgan's dissertation
we introduce the topic of women and textile production in the Roman
Empire. Scholars have often viewed the domestic and commercial divide
in textile production along gendered lines, associating domestic
production with women in the context of the ideal of feminine virtue
and commercial production with men working in centralized production
centers. Here we use the cottage industry model to contextualize the
role of women’s labor in the Roman textile industry, exploring the
links between domestic production and commercial distribution.

Links:

Morgan's dissertation

Episode 26: Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber, an academic journey
talks about the process of getting a PhD (from Morgan's personal
experiences, your mileage may vary)

Episode 3: Textile production and a nostalgic past
discusses Augustan propaganda and textile production and gives a
summary of the stages of textile production from sheep to sweater.

The two Augustan versions of the Lucretia myth by
Ovid, Fasti 2.722-751
and Livy, History of Rome 1.57.9
(Content Warning: rape, suicide, revolution)

Another instance of a woman's labor from Ovid, this time a more
modest country woman who must weave cloaks etc before winter to
protect her family from the cold:
Ovid, Fasti 4.687-714.

Hitchner, Robert Bruce. 2012. "Olive Production and the Roman
Economy: The Case for Intensive Growth in the Roman Empire." In
The Ancient Economy, Taylor and Francis. Partial text available
on Google Scholar.

Barber, Elizabeth. 1994. Women’s Work: the First 20,000 Years:
Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York : Norton.

Lena Larsson Lovén
has written extensively on both the iconography of textile
production and the performative relationships between women and
wool work in the Roman Empire.