[pyuser583]

> Before the Victorian Era, nothing about womens' lives was well documented

There are plenty of female diarists. Court cases often delved into women’s lives. Women belonged to institutions like convents that kept records.

The real gaps in documentation aren’t based on gender but class. Not entirely clear what medieval peasants did with their time.

But even then, inquisitions kept meticulous records and regularly investigated small towns. Women were questioned as often as men.

Modern historians (pre-1970s) may have been less interested in women’s lives, but they weren’t necessarily less documented.

Edit: another big gap in records is from the wars of the 20th century. WWII and the wars of the 1990s destroyed “the record” in large parts of eastern europe.