Girls may either be kept at home or sent as ladies-in-waiting to the father’s liege, either way, they learn household management as well as needlework and other fine arts, read and wait for some suitable young noble to marry them.
A noblewoman's first and foremost duty is to secure the dynastic succession. This is done first and foremost by bearing children to one's lawfully wedded husband.
A young maid is expected to accept the husband her father picks for her. Her mother is likely to provide her father with much on the information on which the choice is made.
It is the custom for noble women to breastfeed their children, so that they receive the noble essence from their bosom, but to leave all other aspects of raising the infant to a the nurse. As the infants mature into children, a poorer noblewoman may take care of teaching them to read, write and cypher herself, while a true lady has a household teacher for this.
While technically subservient to their husbands, noble women have much more time and opportunity to gossip and intrigue during their youth. Their social roles also require them to be good at keeping the men even-tempered, and they learn to be cunning and duplicitous. Most noblemen recognize their wives superior mastery of social skills, and tend to take their advice on social and political matters.
Noblewomen never take part in the actual labour, but they supervise servants, the kitchen and the larder, and keep the keys to the house. They may also, in practice, supervise most of their husband's non-military hirelings.
It is the ancient custom for noblewomen to fill their spare hours with needlework, and, to a lesser extent, weaving. They make mainly gobelins and tapestries, embroidering beautiful scenes on them. These are prized both to decorate the home and to give and receive as gifts.
The modern noblewoman is fully literate, and spends some of her spare time reading, she is likely to have some knowledge of literature. Noblewomen primarily read romances and poetry, and may lend books to one another.
Whereas the young noblemen are taught to use a variety of weapons for martial purposes, noblewomen are taught only the knife. This skill is imparted to help them defend their chastity and their honour, if necessesary by suicide.