While it can be very difficult to find information about women in the early medieval period, scholarship on the later Middle Ages is rich in discussions you would find useful.
In his essay essay on Women Traders in Medieval England, Rodney Hilton discusses largely later medieval documents and records.
In Women in the Medieval English Countryside. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Judith Bennet writes, "Favorable judgments about the status of medieval women are almost a commonplace in historical literature because studies of the most adverse effects on women of the commercialization and industrialization of modern Europe have thrown flattering light on the reputed status of women in the medieval centuries that preceded these momentous economic changes" (4). She quotes a scholar who maintains that there was "equality of men and women in the medieval countryside," for example (4-5).
Even without reading Bennett's book, think about her statement when you look at :
New Readings on Women in Old English Literature, an essay collection edited by Helen Damico and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen (on reserve).
What kinds of topics about women are discussed in this essay collection? Is history given as much weight as literature? How do you decide this--what do you yourself look for?
Are there any indications in the standard sources on women in the Old English period that women actively participated in trade?
What kinds of historical perspectives and expectations lead to such assertions of equality?
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