本文試圖探討中古早期性別史研究的成就、潛力及方法學上的問題，本文特別強調中古早期對婦女、性別和家庭的圖像和態度，在作簡略歷史研究的概覽之後，意圖對不同研究主題之多樣性及其發展作一概述，且探討史料解讀的問題，特別是針對婦女法律地位的問題（此時也考慮到文學作品形式的影響及法律準則、法律實踐之間的區別）。文中以兩個例子來說明，首先是以聖經中的夏娃圖像作為對中古婦女態度的代表（它是模棱兩可的），第二是對婚姻的態度，以這兩個主題皆可用來探討方法學問題、之前學者研究的誤解和偏見（那是由於我們對史料性質的忽視），還有就是探討現代方法學對研究本篇主題的潛力極大。這些問題顯示中古史料特殊的背景和態度（因此它是中古早期思維與心態的重要部分），也顯示中古對婦女和性別的概念及婦女的重主要性（和聲望），以上這些都出現在婦女不被尊重的中古社會，因為婦女是以其社會地位來評判共存在價值，而非婦女本身能力，但儘管某些社會和法律對女性的制約，這種地位立在非表示是對女性的貶抑。

This paper wants to give an exemplary insight into the achievements and possibilities as well as the methodological problems of research on gender history in the Early Middle Ages, while laying a specific emphasis on the early medieval "image" of and the attitudes towards women, gender, and the family. After a brief historiographical sketch with the intention to give a survey on the great variety and development of different studies and topics and a discussion of the problems in interpreting the sources with regard to the legal position of women (by taking into consideration the dependance on the literary genre and the difference between legal norms and legal practice), these points are illustrated by regarding two examples: first, the image of the biblical Eve as an (ambiguous) representative of medieval attitudes towards women and, second, the attitudes towards marriage, former misinterpretations and prejudices (because of a neglect of the character of our sources) as well as possibilities of modern approaches towards the subject. They reveal the specific background and attitudes of medieval sources (and thus important parts of the early medieval mentality), the medieval notions of women and gender, also the importance (and esteem) of women, in a society where women were seldom regarded as such, but as members of their respective status, but which, in spite of certain social and legal restrictions, was far from being misogynistic.