This increased the standard of living for everybody. Europeans went on spending sprees to try and forget the chaos and problems in their lives. Even the peasants could afford "luxury" items such as dishes and chairs.
Cantor demonstrates an example of the labor shortage through the story of the Talbots. In the years following the Black Death, they were not able to find enough workers for their family's land. To solve this problem, they (as with many other land owners) divided up their land and leased it out to some of the well-off peasants. This was quite a common procedure in the late fourteenth and earlier fifteenth centuries. .
Women in the gentry class often outlived men during this period. As a result, women earned more independence, wealth, and prestige in society. However, this resulted in arguments and some economic instabilities. On such case was the le Strange family. Male family members became victims of the disease in each of the plague outbreaks and their males became eliminated, leaving only dowagers (Cantor 2001). The women became the ones to inherit the property and wealth, while the family name disappeared. Women benefited more than anyone from the Black Death. If one examined the situation, they would find that females were not actually treated as "property" but rather, they gained independence and privileges as a result of the plague. "Property" to the gentry class was something that was valued, loved, and treated with respect. The only major thing females did not have was higher education. .
As a consequence of these economic changes and alterations in stratification, social distinctions also became apparent. To emphasize their social standing, people of the wealthy, elite class began to dress extravagantly. There was also a difference in the peasants" attitudes. Feeling a new sense of empowerment, they started to challenge the aristocracy. The lower class people of northern France started a riot in 1358, and disenfranchised union members revolted in 1378.
