The Role of Female Work in Ceramic Production in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

The main objective of this study was to analyse the role played by women in ceramic production in León between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. To this end, we studied the information contained in manuscript and printed sources and combined this approach with oral interviews and field work. We have been able to distinguish the work performed by the master potters, who extracted the clay, shaped the wares and fired them, from the tasks that were left to the apprentices, usually their children, or the women, who participated in the extraction of raw materials, prepared the clay, laid out the wares to dry and helped the potter to load and unload the kiln and to decorate the wares.