Catherine, Called Birdy

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What freedoms and restrictions did women have in Medieval Europe? How did these freedoms and restrictions vary by class? Were there some women who had more freedom than others?

Teaching Suggestion: This question connects to the theme The Restrictive Roles of Gender and Class in the Medieval Era. The novel gives the reader a glimpse into Birdy’s upper-class status as a woman, but women in higher and lower classes had their own set of freedoms and restrictions. Students might benefit from a graphic organizer to help them categorize the different aspects of life for women in different classes.

• What Was Life Like for Women in the Middle Ages? Is an interview with medieval scholars from the Getty Museum that provides insight into medieval women’s lives.
• “Women in the Middle Ages” from World History Encyclopedia discusses many aspects of women’s history in Medieval Europe, including the differences between women in different social strata. It also includes information on some of the most important women of the medieval era.