Were men and woman who were peasants treated differently?

Answer 1

Yes men and woman were treated very differently. although they both worked in the field the woman were supposed to take care of the children while the men were supposed to do the really heavy and strong stuff. moving wagons, carts and anything heavy

Answer 2

It is hard to assess accurately the differences between the lives of men and women on medieval farms. Our understanding of the lives of the medieval peasants has been gradually changing through the years, and the question of the role of the sexes is one area where earlier understanding seems often wrong.

We have had the idea that women did certain things, such as weaving, spinning, sewing, and cooking, and that on the farm it was the women who did lighter work. This idea seems to be partly true, but only partly, in light of later investigations. While it seems true that there were certain jobs, including spinning, that were women's, the separation was more limited than we had imagined.

We do not have really good records of life on farms, but we do, for some places, for work in construction and in cities. Women did many of the same things men did, including working as masons, carpenters, ditch diggers, and so on. There is a record of the construction laborers of a church in France, for example, where the majority of heavy work was done by women.

If we extend this to the farm, we would expect the separation that might put girls in charge of flocks and herds while boys learned to plow, would have been based more on physique and less on sex. Bigger people, with stronger muscles, would have done the plowing, while the smaller would have tended the flocks.

The history of women working has some surprises in it, and we see a change in attitude at the end of the Middle Ages, as women were more and more excluded from the workplace, and a separation of the sexes was more based simply on sex. Again we can see this most easily in towns and cities, where records show women were gradually excluded from membership by more and more guilds. The basis of this was partly the pensions that became available for widows, and to some extent, this was doubtless regarded as a good thing for women at that time.

There is a link below to a related question on medieval women.

Answer 3

The males were usually carpenters, shoemakers, or smiths while the females worked in the fields when needed and took care of their children at home. :D