Information about women's space is very hard to come by. Clearly it was sharply delineated from the rest of domestic space; a distinctly feminine sense of time prevailed within it. In the chansons de toile women are seen to be dependent and in a virtual state of rebellion against the institution of marriage. Women's time is a time of waiting; time is experienced inwardly, and in despair. . . . Women's space is closely guarded, for within it reside the women in whom the quality of the lineage is vested. In the gynaeceum woman is exalted in her role as mother; men may enter, but only for a limited time. In parts of the household where multiple female functions are on display (lady, retinue, nurses) spatial functions are absent. In the gynaeceum the child receives its earliest education; the segregation is functional. . . . The women's group has a very distinctive character. It defines itself in terms of boundaries. . . . Withdrawal is another constant.

---Phillipe Aries and Georges Duby, eds., A History of Private Life, Vol. 2: Revelations of the Medieval World (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1987).