Reddit reviews Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History, 500-1000

As freondlas pointed out, it really depends which time period you're interested in. For UK history this can roughly be divided into Anglo-Saxon England (pre 1066 and the Battle of Hastings) and Norman England (After 1066). That's a very rough breakdown/divide. If you want an academic but easy-to-read book I would suggest Julia Smith's Europe After Rome: 500-1000 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Europe-after-Rome-Cultural-500-1000/dp/0192892630) or if you want to get your nails into proper Anglo-Saxon work and primary sources (in translation) try Beowulf; it's a good read.

Yes. In fact, I would recommend Gender in the Early Medieval World down as the best one I've read so far on the subject, although as you can tell by the title, it's not limited to women, but the role of gender in general.

Another good book is the series of articles in Debating the Middle Ages, which also has a whole section on gender. You might be able to look at the table of contents and pull some of those articles direct from JSTOR. "Queens as Jezebels: The Careers of Brunhild and Balthild in Merovingian history" and "The Cruel Mother: Maternity, Widowhood, and Dowry in Florence" I found quite fascinating.

Also Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History I also enjoyed as a very readable counterweight to some of the text heavy other scholarship.

I would however, stay away from Women in the Early Medieval World. There's way too much speculation, not enough scholarship (and what's there is outdated), and the tone is unnecessarily combatative for a book published by a major university press.