Essay On The Role Of Women Dbq

999 Words4 Pages

Before the Reformation, women not seen or viewed as equals to men in any way. Men believed that a woman's role is to bear children and be something like a housewife, taking care of the children and the house. They were not to hold any major responsibilities because society believed that it is not a women’s place and that they would not be able to handle it since they thought that women have limits. During the Reformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, society’s attitude toward women changed. The society started to view women as equals in religion and education, but apart of society still believed in the subordination of women, which caused some things not to change.

An area where women were considered to be equals to men was in …show more content…

In Document 4 a woman talks about how she wants to restore the original Calvinism and how they only follow scripture. This woman most likely decided to follow Calvin and be a Calvinist because she learned about it and educated herself about why Calvinism should be followed. After deciding to become a Calvinist she decides to try to educate other people and persuade them to convert to Calvinism as seen in this document. In this document the author, Jeanne d’ Albert, is addressing what she wants to say to the pope, but it can be said that her intended audience could have been the members of the church. She might have wanted to show the people that they should follow scripture and not the pope’s words. In Document 7 it shows a picture that has both a man and a woman teaching side by side to the children. This shows that women are as smart as men and are capable of teaching a class since the belief of men being smarter than women is gone. These two documents show that women were viewed as equals in the fields of …show more content…

Being able to participate in religious matters and educate others show how society changed their view on women from before women being inferior and during the sixteenth and seventeenth century being almost equals in those fields. In the United States women were able to get equal rights, the same as men, by having their law go through the congress and senate. The women’s right organization had to try for over forty years to get their law passed, which in the end was called the Equal Rights Amendment. This shows that for women in Europe and the United States it was not easy for them to get the same rights as men. It took time and effort for them to get the rights they deserve. During the Reformation in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe society’s view on women changed by women becoming seen as equals in religious and educational

Open Document