Nuns: powerful women of the Middle Ages

An exhibition now on at the Swiss National Museum looks at how ecclesiastical women lived in the Middle Ages, and the opportunities open to them.

The Middle Ages were a rough time for women. They were considered inferior to men, and very few were educated. Convents offered them opportunities that might otherwise have been denied them: access to schooling, social welfare and the chance to break away from the close strictures of their families.... More info