Gender and the Glove in Early Modern England

This book explores how gloves shaped and reflected gender relations in early modern society. By examining the cultural, economic, and political significance of gloves, it reveals how these everyday objects both reinforced and challenged gender ideologies of the time.

The study demonstrates that gloves were far more than simple accessories—they were powerful symbols that helped construct social hierarchies and express various forms of authority and agency. Through their material presence and symbolic meaning, gloves participated in complex dialogues about gender, power, and identity. Drawing on methodologies from history, archaeology, anthropology, geography, art history, material culture studies, performance studies, and disability studies, this interdisciplinary approach examines how physical objects and bodily practices intersected to create meaning. The analysis focuses on the tangible relationships between people, objects, and power structures, showing how material culture actively shaped social relations rather than simply reflecting them.

This work contributes to our understanding of how gender operated in early modern contexts, demonstrating that power relations were constructed through everyday interactions with material objects like gloves.

James Daybell is Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Plymouth and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has produced 14 books including The Material Letter (2012), Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England (2006), and over 50 articles on early modern letter-writing, gender, politics, culture and materiality.

Susan Broomhall is Professor of Early Modern Studies and Director of the Gender and Women’s History Research Centre at the Australian Catholic University. Her publications examine women, gender, emotional and cultural practices in the early modern world. She is General Editor of the six-volume Bloomsbury Cultural History of Gender (2026).