There are a number of issues to be raised when approaching medieval women's history. One major problem that has to be encountered is the paucity of largescale records. The 1427 Tuscany tax surveys have been a very useful tool for researchers, but in Britain such comprehensive records do not exist. Scholars have been resourceful in basing their studies on parish records, though the scale of these hardly offers a convincing sample. Beyond the lack of documentary evidence (which would arguably affect the study of both genders) there exists the particular difficulty of women's absence. Since women were rarely the head of a household (unless they were widows), they are often concealed by their husband's name. For example, the Halesowen records from Worcestershire from 1271–1395 reveal that twenty-six per cent of the inhabitants were female. But this is unlikely to be an accurate portrayal. It is probable that women comprised over half the population at Halesowen. Likewise, many women are absent from trading records since they practised under their husband's names. The extant records from medieval Britain do not provide a reliable reflection of women's contribution to work patterns.

The study of medieval women's history is affected by a lack of consistent terminology and theoretical direction. For example, it is difficult to discern whether ‘women’ formed a separate and identifiable social group. While medieval society has been traditionally divided into the binaries of Church/laity or aristocracy/ peasant, the separation on gender grounds seems less appropriate.