I read a blog post recently saying one of the down sides of re-enacting was being a female reenactor as they weren’t allowed to dress as a male off the battlefield and women were only allowed to do four things in their camp—and spinning wasn’t even one of them!
So I thought I’d start compiling a list of historically accurate tasks, crafts and roles for female personas and make a page for these on my other blog.
So, if you have anything you’d love me to add to the list, leave a comment!
Photograph of Cathelina di Alessandri spinning thanks to http://rosaliegilbert.com/
15thcenturyspinning 
Choosing one thing for me to concentrate on is hard as there are so many things. Now I’m in Texas and participate in early Texas and American Civil War era. And yes a lot of this is geared to frontier living. Yes, I do a lot of spinning. But there is cooking which is actually fun on a fire with old recipes, herbal medicines, sewing, soap making, candle making, gardening (going to events not so easy but what about handling the harvest), needlework, knitting, laundry, social events such as a dinner with friend, calling on friends, dances, a medieval renaissance versions of quilting or shucking bees, games (I love teaching people to play Graces but think that didn’t come about till 18th century if I remember rightly), and what one did for exercise, is there a holiday you can recreate what people did for. War’s a big part of history but not all of it. Think in terms of every day life and then research what they would have done during a day. Ok, I need to get on with my day. Just a few quickly off the top of my head. But anyone who says it’s boring and nothing to do, needs to read about everyday life and find something that intrigues them.
Hans Talhoffer designed a special type of martial art for women.
I’m no expert so I’m guessing here, but fabric or yarn dying might well have been a job for a woman.
A woman who comes to my historical sewing days does lacemaking—it’s fascinating, and pretty old although the modern lace pillows are a bit different.
Unrelated, but Saturday we went to Northshield’s Spring Coronation, and I brought my spinning along. I was using the suspended method that I learned from your blog, and got lots of compliments — one of which was from a lady who had been Laurelled less than a minute before. I would have credited you if I hadn’t totally lost my wits at that moment.