I am examining the various relationships lower and middling class women had with animals in the period 1600-1750. I am investigating women’s working relationships with living animals; their relationships with animals when preparing them as food, medicine or ingredient; their affective relationships with animals as companions; and finally their unnatural and superstitious associations with animals. I examine these relationships in both practice and representation, analysing language, imagery, material culture, and physicality to establish both what these relationships were and the ways they were affected by contemporary gender perception.