Women's Role In The Middle Ages Essay

The Medieval society was very traditional, in the aspect that men were the most dominant figure as oppose to women. Women had to learn their ‘place’ in the society. They were treated with very little respect and played a very slim role towards the country’s behalf. Her main duty was to support her husband and family and take care of all of her responsibilities. Women had very limited freedom and for the majority of the time, her father or husband would make all of the decisions on their wife/ daughter’s behalf.

Women of the Medieval Times Women have always had a significant role in history even though they were treated horrible in most cases. During the Medieval Times was really the first time women were allowed to become more than just a house wife. The fight for equality has always been a struggle and even in today’s society is still an ongoing battle. Although women of lower and middle class were treated poorly in the Medieval Times, some powerful women held great responsibility and were looked up too by both men and children; despite being admired, “men were thought to be not only physically stronger but more emotionally stable, more intelligent, and morally less feeble” (Hopkins 5). “The position of women in the Medieval Society was greatly influenced by the views of the Roman Catholic Church” (Heeve).

Throughout the 16th century Reformation through the Enlightenment in the 18th century, was a period of time that saw both change and continuation in European society. One of the biggest examples of this was the role of women and how they should function in European society. Women in this era faced a large amount of hardships and obstacles from great leaders and philosophers such as Martin Luther and Immanuel Kant, who were both against the equality of women to men at this time. From the time period of the 16th century Reformation all the way up to the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the women of Europe were viewed as fragile and unworkable women whose main priority and purpose should only be being a housewife. As time progressed, women

From the 16th to 18th century European women experienced some level of change in their roles and attitudes towards them. Ideas women were still considered inferior to men still lingered and progress of equal rights still progressed slowly. Around the time the Enlightenment rolled around women were beginning to get involved in the workforce and taking on a new, much bigger role in society. Some aspects of European women’s lives changed, starting in the Reformation, which saw their roles expand from being a husband’s concubine. Before the Reformation, many humanists and Professor Alberti stressed that a wife’s traditional role should be restricted to the orderliness of the household, food preparation, serving of meals, the education of children, and the supervision of servants.

EARLY MODERN EUROPE' NOTION ABOUT WOMEN In order to understand the position of women in Early Modern Europe, firstly we need to understand the society of this period. The society took place in Early Modern Europe was the patriarchy.

In the article “Traditions Subordinating Women”, Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser explore the very strong opinions, theories and beliefs of female subordination within the eyes of various origin cultures through stories, passages and history itself. This article gives a vast understanding of a woman’s role, the purpose of her body, what is expected of her, society’s double standards and how literature and poems portray women. Before Christianity, there existed many old cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Germanics and Celtics, who all came in agreement to preserving the subordination of women. A woman’s main duties were to remain faithful to her husband, to be fruitful and to preserve and nurture her home. A woman was incapable

Women’s life in the 1600’s were not your idea life. Women in the 1600s roles were very limited. Women were considered to be inferior to men. They were consider to be the weaker sex, physically and mentally. The thought was that women needed a male figure to take care of them. Women were single there Father or brother would look after them until their married. Then there husband would take over that responsibility. Women who were happy were married. Marriage was desirable for men and women. Men were considered to be the head of the marriages. Even though men were at the top they couldn’t beat or mistreat their wives. If so they would’ve been prosecuted or prevented from living with the woman. The men received the social rights to full educations, to property, and to vote, and the women were seen as, essentially, second-class citizens, relying on their husbands or fathers for near everything. Women at this time had a minimum level of education. Women were only allowed to get their education at home or at an elementary school; the luckier, upper-class women were sometimes gifted with private tutors. They weren’t allowed to enter professions such ass law, politics, medicine, politics and other high professions. They were mostly allowed to be cooks and maids. The lower jobs of society. Women usually had no life out of their home. Women who were owners of their own businesses establishments were called “Feme Sole Traders”. They didn’t have any help or support for them. They were looked down on. Women who were not

In comparison to men, women were thought to be fragile and innocent. This was mostly because of the Code of Chivalry which caused men to be kinder and more gentlemanly to women creating a romanticized image of women. She was overall respected and not normally deceived. The role of women during the medieval time period was also particularly different from the ones of the classical period. The women were involved in the public affairs of the estate, unlike Greek and Rome. Getting up early, making sure the animals were clean, and creating clothing were some of the responsibilities of women in medieval Europe. Moreover, women knowledgeable in the public and private of her husband and made sure everything was going smoothly in his estates. Like

During this time “A woman's most important commodity was her virginity,” (Murphy 1). It was important to society that women were virgins before marriage and when married they were to have many children. When a woman was married she lost her rights to own property and business, their husbands became guardians over them and gained full control of all property, businesses and land they owned before marriage (Vann 1). Before marriage a woman had some control over her own life but as soon as she was married it was expected that the husband would take over and make decisions for

In literature, women were portrayed unflatteringly: the unfaithful or deceptive wife, the bossy old woman, the gossip and the gold digger. There was a lot of emphasis put on urging women to be meek, obedient and respectful to their husbands. In real life, women were also often oppressed, in that men created all the laws, including ones that prohibited them from marrying without parents’ consent, from divorcing partners, from inheriting anything if any they had any surviving brothers and from running businesses. Women in medieval society were all but

The largest part focuses on the valuation of virginity and taking action as a Protestant, as Argula von Grumbach, in male inaction as doctrinally sound. For the Catholic reformation, Wiesner argues women’s most impressive role came from remedying their husband’s Protestantism, most dramatically in England and Ireland, but not unknown in Italy. Many of the converting practices adopted like homes for repentant prostitutes and foundling homes eventually found place in Orthodox religions under Peter the Great. (241) Jewish women faced similar patriarchal issues as Christian women, with the added pressures of torture, exile, and murder at a governmental level. (250) Muslim women of the period, called “Moriscos” faced marriages similar to those practiced by Catholic women in which conversion dominated their religious involvement.

Throughout the Middle Ages, a woman’s role in society was extremely limited. Women were married off for the dowry their husband could provide their family, or for political advantage. (Dean and Thomson 69) Eleanor of Aquitaine was crowned the Queen of France at the age of 15 after marrying into the crown, undeniably young for her position of power. But, it was because of her position as Queen of France and eventually Queen of England that helped her to make an impact on Medieval women and their roles in society. Eleanor was strong willed and never stopped fighting for others to see things her way, which in many cases was not the normal way in the Middle Ages. Her way of thinking was considered out of the ordinary at that time, but now she

Roles Played By Women In Classical Civilizations Women weren’t always seen as equal to men, throughout history women have been mistreated and thought to be less than men. In the classical times,the Rome Empire and the Han dynasty had many similarities and a couple differences in the way they treated their women. During the Classic period from 300 BCE-600 CE, women in Rome and the Han Dynasty were treated and seen as less than men, in China were to submit to their husbands while in Rome women were to be married as soon as they hit puberty and had many disadvantages in divorce,in both civilizations the main role of women was to of taking care of children and the home. In ancient Rome women weren’t given much rights and treated like second class citizens.

Most women during the early middle ages were not treated properly. They were treated as housekeepers ready to serve every single one of their husband’s needs. According to society women who were not submissive to their husband where all evil. These ideas influenced many of the stories written during the early middle ages; stories such as, Beowulf, Marie de France’s Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Wife of Bath. In all of these stories women were given a negative image because of the standards set for women by society.

During the Middle Ages, women held the common positions of wife, mother, peasant, artisan, or nun. Besides taking on these traditional roles, Heloise was a brilliant “scholar of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had a reputation for intelligence and insight” (New World Encyclopedia). She was raised in the nunnery of Argenteuil, where her mother lived. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, male primogeniture was established, this allowed for the eldest son to inherit all the property instead of sharing it among the family. In this period, “many wealthy women chose to live in monasteries, where they could receive education” (New World Encyclopedia).