Roles Of Women In The Renaissance

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.

Women in Renaissance Italy faced rigid societal standards to which they were supposed to conform. They lived public lives, directed almost exclusively by other people in regards to significant decisions. However, this does not mean that a rise above the oppressive nature of the Renaissance was impossible. Several exceptional women were able to challenge their given positions in a society through their education, practices, seclusion, beauty, and roles. In an examination of several positions, through the Exhortations to Women and to Others If They Please by Lucrezia Marinella and the letters of Laura Cereta, a Renaissance feminist, women can be seen as accepting of their position in society or rebelling against it. Their lives and prescriptive writings show how one can either follow the role given to them or exceed beyond it and become an exceptional woman.

The Renaissance was a time of rebirth of old traditions, and in old traditions women’s role in society was very minimal. During times of the Renaissance women’s roles were often more suppressed than it once had been before. Many times women were looked off primarily her looks and social status. Another contributing factor of women’s role was how well she would be acquired to married life. Women were so suppressed in the Renaissance that many women joined convents to be able to have the ability to learn like the men were able to. Changes and continuities of women’s public roles during the Renaissance included social status, acquirement to marriage, and reduction of rights for women.

During the Middle Ages, except for those in religious positions, women were only seen as three things, which were daughter, wife, and mother. But in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, new opportunities in learning humanism arose for only those in the higher class families. Even though they started to educate themselves, the majority had no rights whatsoever in money matters as well as estate. From the 17th century and up to the scientific revolution, women’s rights had consistently been improving. However, during the revolution, the study of the human body brought to attention that the male brain is quite larger than that of a female. This revelation set back the female race back to a limited role, but this time this setback was

Between the 1300s and 1500s, Europe experienced a period of cultural rebirth known as the Renaissance, marking the transition from medieval times to modern times. The Renaissance brought new importance to individual expression, self-consciousness and worldly experience.

The second area that saw the littlest change for women in the Renaissance was the expectations that came with their social status. Overall women were deemed to be a lower class in terms of gender, and men often treated them with less respect as a result. Within social classes, stereotypical beliefs regarding women and their role were held. Lower class women were expected to be housewives and take care of everything to do with the house. The expectation of working-class women, however, was slightly different. They were expected to work for their husbands and help them run their business, although they couldn’t partake in any of the work by themselves or outside of the house. However, this different expectation wasn’t necessarily new and was upheld from previous times, supporting this idea of women not receiving a Renaissance in the area of social class. Some women in the elite were able to become slightly more independent from their husbands and gain more responsibility, but the vast majority of women in the Renaissance continued to be used for the sole benefits of the men; as providers of a dowry, homemakers

The emergence of the Renaissance throughout Italy gave rise to the philosophy of humanism; rather than submitting to tradition, those situated lower on the social hierarchy began to question their situations. This lead to an increase in educational pursuits coupled with social and political upheaval. Early Renaissance feminists began to voice their concerns regarding the rights and equality of women in a heavily patriarchal society using literature, art, and politics. Laura Cetera’s Defense of Liberal Instruction for Women and Lucrezia Marinella’s The Nobility and Excellence of Women are both feminist pieces of the time. While both authors advocate for the political and social advancement for women, Cereta and Marinella’s differing experiences

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Scientific Revolution, which was the development of new sciences and technology, and the Age of Enlightenment, which was the so called “age of reason”, had sparked women’s

During the medieval times, women were not seen as they are today. Although in the world today there are still those who are full of misogyny, it was much more common and intense during this time period. Women during the middle ages had specific roles assigned to them in society. These roles depended on the type of women they were, whether it be a peasant, noble woman, or an evil temptress. These roles that women have served have shown up in numerous stories from the middle ages including: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife’s Lament.

The Renaissance, with took place in Italy and Northern Europe, inspired major changes in social life. Humanism, or the idea that men needed to educate themselves to be the best humans, was one of the reasons for these changes. They started going to schools and expressing themselves artistically, these new actions brought about the belief that men were superior. The assumed role of men during the Renaissance was to be dominant. They were to fight in battles and wars, hold a position for office, and do honor to their family name. In comparison, the roles of women were drastically different, they were submissive. It was thought that women should obey her husband and father, bear children, and not be educated, as many men were.

A woman’s roll in today’s society is just about as equal as a mans, or any other persons that I know. A woman may vote, work a “guys” job or even run or manage a company. The question is, what was a women’s roll in society in the 1500’s or later? What did a woman do in the house hold, or business? Women’s rights were not always that of a mans so how did women live back in the day of our ancestors? Those are the questions I will be getting to the bottom of. A women’s role in the world open to a new perspective in one small paper. Close your eyes and try to picture a medieval woman. I wonder, was she a woman sitting near a window, doing needlework and waiting for her lord to come home from battle? These images have been branded not only in

The Renaissance was a time of enlightenment and discovery around the world. There were many advancements in culture, art, and science. An interesting area to look at for this period would be the advancements made based on gender. Historically, women do not always have a significant impact on their culture, and they do not always have the same standing as their male counterparts. Margaret L. King and Joan Kelly-Gadol delve deeper into the issue of gender advancements during the Renaissance when they analyze the issue of whether women and men benefitted equally during this period.

The purpose of the book Women of the Renaissance by Margaret King is to explain the various roles of that women occupied during the renaissance. She mainly focusses on women of western Europe between 1350 and 1650. In the chapter titled “Daughters of Eve: Women in the Family” King writes about the positions of women in the family. In the part of the chapter that we were assigned, she depicts the role of mother. She explains the importance having children, the differences between healthy and lower class mothers, and the relationship between these mothers and their children. During the renaissance, motherhood was an extremely important job, and many women were defined by it.

As many may think, women weren’t as important during the renaissance period. Some seem to believe that women had it easier than they do today. Some even believe that they had much more power and independence. If only that were true. Women who showed too much independence, sexual or otherwise, were punished and sometimes even killed (Wiesner 59). Women were made to be seen as saints and remained loyal to one man. During the renaissance period, women went through many hardships and many things were expected of her by her family, as well as her husband. You might ask, what was marriage, education, and employment like for women during the renaissance period?

Throughout much of history, women’s roles of being dutiful and respectful, quiet ladies guided them into a state of oppression and vulnerability. It was not until the Enlightenment that women began to exceed in different areas, finally beginning to be taken seriously as well as getting recognition for movements that they have been a part of. Up until then, the major role of women was to produce sons that would rise up and take financial care of a household, or daughters that would lead quiet and bashful lives once again repeating what the mother had once learned when she young. However, the fundamental roles of women during the French Revolution varied. There were many women who did not share common experiences and depending on their social class, these women’s involvements in different areas of the Revolution varied significantly.