Before the Black Plague (circa 1350), most ale was brewed by women; however, after 1350, the trade slowly shifted to being dominated by men, and by 1600, women had all but disappeared from the trade. In her book, "Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work In a Changing World: 1300-1600," Bennett uses the records of noble houses, literary sources, and government records to show that as brewing became commercialized and less of a domestic task, women slowly leave the trade, changing to other trades that were low in skill, status, pay, and were usually domestically based, such as weaving. Why women were left out of the prosperity is a central question for Bennett. Bennett also uses this work to show that women's work never changed very much; the trade may have changed, but the status of it never rose, and as soon as a trade began to become capitalized, men...