UMBC Humanities Forum — Webb Lecture
Judith Bennett, John R. Hubbard Professor Emerita, University of Southern California
“Wretched Girls, Wretched Boys, and the Medieval Origins of the ‘European Marriage Pattern’”
Thursday, November 10, 4 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

The “Girl Effect,” a new buzzword in development circles, argues that economies grow when girls marry later and get more schooling. This lecture skeptically examines its historical equivalent — the idea that “Girlpower” (better jobs for girls and later marriage) drove the extraordinary development of modern Europe. Judith Bennett shows, first, that late marriage began in Europe long before 1500, and second, that the impetus for this distinctive “European Marriage Pattern” was poverty, not prudential investment in girls.

This event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the UMBC Department of History and the Dresher Center for the Humanities.