Elizabethan Women's Rights

Women in the mid-1600s to mid-1700s underwent pivotal changes. While these changes would alter their roles in the colonies, certain aspects of their responsibilities remained the same.

play was outrageous and not accepted. The image of women in plays and stories at the time were

Throughout the Elizabethan era, men had more advantages than women. William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew has characters such as Petruchio, Baptista, Katherine, and Bianca that show how men overpowered women. During the Elizabethan era, there was heavy sexism. Women were discriminated. Through Shakespeare’s language, men could speak to and about women in a disrespectful and derogatory manner. Women were voiceless and deprived of their right to speak. Women were inferior to men. During the Elizabethan era, through Shakespeare’s language, and in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it is proven that men had more advantages than women.

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I’s controversial reign at the time informed the play’s content. She, in fact, used to like to invite theater companies to her palaces[2] and saw a performance of the play at Christmastime while on a campaign in Ireland[3]. In her medieval England, people met the idea of a female monarch with hostility[4], because there had never been one until[5] . The challenge to tradition that was Queen Elizabeth I’s reign most likely to lead the discussion of gender roles in Twelfth Night.

Colonial New England women did not benefit from autonomy because they did not have the freedom associated. The husbands of colonial women had full control and their wives were dependent on them financially, occupationally, spiritually and even mentally: the women counted on the men for funds to keep the household fulfilled, took on their husbands religious and spiritual views, and also were told the right and wrong things they should be thinking about. In addition to not being independent in ways aforementioned, women in this era were not legally and politically autonomous which they would not get that right until later on in American history.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in an unprecedented movement, raised the concern for the issue of woman's rights. In her day, such matters of "enlightened motherhood", temperance, and abolitionism were seldom taken to heart by the opposite sex. When she spoke at woman's advocacy conventions, anti-feminists and conservative reformers alike censured her. Although her stand on woman's rights was her main interest, it was work in progress toward a larger and more far-fetched goal. Her priorities concerning an idealistic society could be structured as a pyramid. As the foundation, she suggested reform for prisoners and the working class; she opted to eradicate domestic violence against women through the rehabilitation of alcoholic husbands, and not

In the 17th Century, men and women were viewed and treated very unequally especially compared to today's time period. Of all factors in the hierarchical arrangement like class or race, gender was considered the most distinct of them all which caused it to be the most arguable. Men and women had their own rules and responsibilities that were given to them by what has always been traditionally practiced. Society created a box in a way, that each sex was to remain in and it was looked down upon for anyone to stray from that theoretical box.

When did we realize we were the best? About 1438 years ago, the Quran came to humans where it stated that “[God] has indeed created mankind in the best of molds”. In Islam, humans are clearly revealed as the most blessed creation, and this is because God has bestowed free will upon them, something revolutionary in the world. Clearly shown when researching animals, they survive while we thrive. Among mankind, women are revered and respected as the matriarchs of civilization. They command respect and awe, as mothers foster the care in each and every human being. The problem, however, proves that as much as we accept that humans exist as the most superior race, patriarchal societies, like ours and Shakespeare's have forced women to be seen as

Defining what a female was supposed to be and do was an act of Renaissance culture. For most of Renaissance society, women represented the following virtues which, importantly, having their meaning in relation to the male; obedience, silence, sexual chastity, piety, humility, constancy, and patience. The most important being sexual chastity and piety.

Effect: Men acted female parts. While they may have acted very well and all were accepted by Elizabethan audiences, unlike women who were not given the opportunities to act on stage until the 1600’s. The British prohibition of women actresses was ended in the reign of Charles II who enjoyed watching female actresses on stage. This also represented their lack of external independence.

Despite being under the rule of a female monarch, women faced many inequalities and suffering during the Victorian age. Examples of these inequalities include not having the right to vote, unequal educational and employment opportunities. Women were even denied the legal right to divorce in most cases. As the Norton Anthology states, these debates over women’s rights and their roles came to be known as the “woman question” by the Victorians. This lead to many conflicting struggles, such as the desire by all for women to be educated, yet they are denied the same opportunities afforded to men. While these women faced these difficulties, there was also the notion that women should be domestic and feminine. There was an ideal that women should be submissive and pure because they are naturally different. The industrial revolution introduced women into the labor workforce, but there was still a conflict between the two identities; one of an employed woman, and one of a domestic housewife.

I feel that through this decision, Taymor is commenting on the state of Elizabethan society and its view of women, who were desirable only if they were "silent and invisible" (Greer 2007, 4) and although not as conservative as the Elizabethan era, our own contemporary society, where women are still not equal to men. It also comments on how there is "a canon built around Shakespeare, whose parts for women are comparatively few and composed largely of supporting rather than leading roles." (Goodman 2001, 71). Due to this canon, Taymor (and many other directors and screenwriters) are forced to reinvent Shakespeare 's plays (Goodman 2001, 84-85).

Women’s Rights was one of the major social changes that began to gain attention in the media and to peak in active activity during the twentieth century. Women’s rights had been in the making since the eighteenth century. Some of the earliest documented words for Women’s rights appeared in a letter to John Adams by his wife Abigail Adams. During the making of the United States constitution (from the eighteenth to nineteenth century), she wrote to her husband and asked him to “remember the ladies”. The first state to permit women to vote in the United States (before the nineteenth amendment was drafted) was New Jersey. However, there were restrictions upon who was eligible to vote. Some of these restrictions included

The profession of an actor was actress was always art of the theater organization. Of course, it would not be a performance without performers included in the production. Since the start of the theater organization there was always the need of performers. The main difference between today’s theater organization and the past is that it was well known that all the actors that performed on stage for Shakespeare’s play were all men or young boys, even for the women’s role. For instance, Juliet, Rosalind… were first played by boys”. (Linden, 2009) It was considered a disgrace for women to be on stage. Women started to appear in theater performance “after