Women In The Middle Ages

Care of Souls provides an account of Christianity's historical practices of soul care through a culmination of his many years of scholarship, teaching and clinical work.

Nursing care was unscientific and consisted of assisting patients with usual body functions; and was typically administered by women of a religious order or by women who by nature of their lifestyle frequented hospitals. Hospital care was for the poor and destitute; since home based medical care was better than risking additional infections in the dirty, crowded, and disease-ridden hospitals. During the typhus epidemic of 1852, hospital staff and patients suffered the greatest morbidity and mortality. (Ranade , 199817-19)

A woman in medieval times was not considered a person, but property. A woman would be forced to wear layers of drab clothing, the style determining their social class ranking. A woman of wealth would wear decadent gowns and women in poverty would wear plain spun dresses. Their goal in life was to find a husband, to give in to his whims and be the epitome of submission. Sometimes, peasant girls would be forced to take up a trade prior to marriage. After the marriage, she was forced to give up this trade, the skill she possessed, and either maintain the lifestyle as a housewife, or help her husband with his trade. In regards to whom a woman married, there was little to no choice in the matter. Often, girls were married to strange men, men they

Second women in medicine until the 19th century women were excluded from almost all professional medicine. Yet they provided almost all medical care. Ordinary people could not afford qualified doctors, treatment and care were provided by the woman of the house, or by a local woman skilled in the art of healing. In prehistoric, hunter-gatherer societies, women could not hunt if they were bearing or caring for children, so they collected plants and grubs. It is probable that the women had greater knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, although evidence is slight. Mothers passed down their knowledge to their daughters. In Western Europe, especially skilled healers were highly respected as ‘cunning’ wise women. Sometimes their herbal knowledge was confused with witchcraft. As most people were illiterate, there are very few records of women 's huge contribution to medicine. The surviving records were written by men, and concentrate on the all-male medical profession. In the 19th century there was a dramatic change in the status of women. Until this time, men controlled all ‘civilized’ societies. In Christian countries men used arguments from the Bible to justify women 's inferior status. Women were expected to be housewives and mothers, and were deliberately excluded from almost all other types of work. For example, by the 17th century, even professional midwives were male. In 19th-century Europe, women began to enter the male-dominated world. In

The spiritual significance of illness and suffering is a topic Christians continue to grapple with, as Larchet points out in The Theology of Illness. Scripture offers a wealth of wisdom and cues for understanding illness, health, and healing from a Christian perspective. Larchet analyzes the various and often contradictory Christian positions on health and illness, revealing how attitudes have shifted over time and with changes in medical technology, practice, and ethics. For example, St. Barsanuphius presents a comprehensive analysis of the spiritual significance of illness and suffering. One view holds that illness signifies a lack of faith; another presents illness in terms of a person who is offered the opportunity to develop a stronger faith, or whose faith is being put to a test like the story of Job. Ultimately, the latter remains the most helpful way to approach illness and healing from a Christian perspective. The essence of Christian health care is that, "Healing itself, while resulting from natural processes, actually comes from God," (Larchet 116).

Before logical thought was regularly applied to functions of the human body, people made sense of daily misfortunes by attributing them to the moods and wills of the gods. In the minds of the Greek, afflictions were the result of disobedience and to live in good health was a blessing that only divine intervention could provide (History of Medicine 1). Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, was often the one called upon in times of need. Asclepian temples were constructed in Greece and in the surrounding areas, and these sites of worship also became the centers of healing; Ill Grecians undertook lengthy pilgrimages to the temples in hopes that the God’s supposed restorative powers could ameliorate their tribulations (Greek Medicine 1). An orator at that time, Aeschines reported his encounter with godly healing by praising Asclepius: “No longer counting upon mortal skill, I placed all my hope in divinity. I came, Asclepius, into your sacred wood and I was cured in three of a wound I had in my head for a year” (Palatine Anthology 13). When cures were not left up to the divine, the rituals to rid a body of disease were primitive and mainly consisted of attempts to expel demons (Longrigg 14-16). Although the idea that sickness and religion are intertwined is

Sogliani referring to saints as doctors of the Church further attests to the significance of saints and the Catholic Church in medicine during that time. The embarkment of the Renaissance follows a crippling medical stagnation during the Middle Ages. People’s unwavering faith in the Church caused a disadvantageous reliance on prayers to the saints to cure people of disease3. This is supported in painting after painting of saints curing the sick. The Church also exhorted the belief that disease was a punishment from God3.

Women withstood a multitude of limitations in the medieval era. Due to the political, social, and religious restrictions women encountered, historians neglected to realize that they demonstrated agency. The female experience is something that has been overlooked until recently. Unfortunately, without the knowledge of how women found ways to exert their power, we are experiencing a deficit of knowledge in this period. Through the close examination of the primary sources: The Gospel of Mary, Dhouda’s Liber Manualis, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the creative means of female force are displayed.

The history of nursing can be traced to ancient years whereby people generally applied simple care techniques towards the members of the society facing health implications. Pre-industrial medicines to contribute in the care were incorporated (Dingwall et al, 2002, pg 6). They included the provision of dietetic health menus; advice on appropriate dressing during illness situations; poultices, and herbal infusions. In other extreme situations, spiritual care was availed. This was majorly induced to those experiencing terminal sicknesses or injuries.

There are patterns throughout history that relate to health and religion. Conversations about death or healing due to disease revolves around religion. It is widely used as a coping mechanism for those impacted by death and disease. From worshiping a god or goddess that controls disease to conducting healing ceremonies, to even just praying to be cured of the disease, religious practices are evident when a disease is involved. Analyzing Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron gives us an idea of how life was at the time of the plague along with how religion influenced people's lives at the time of disease.

Knowing how women in the late fourteenth century lived and their roles in society is a continuing investigation left with many unanswered questions. Surviving literature work and historical evidence gives us the best knowledge on this matter but even then one has to be aware that the literary works can be bias since they were written by men. Books of this time show that there are three values that a woman should have in the late fourteenth century: domestic duties, religious compliance, and good manners. Womens rights at this time were slim to none, women were under the control of their husbands will, and under the law were considered to be their husbands property. If a woman was raped then the crime was seen as a crime against another man's property, this is very important to understand since the Wife of Bath’s tale begins with a rape by a knight.

Women from the medieval times had clear roles. The women had strict rules to follow by. When it came to marriage, the wives had to submit to their husbands and follow their lead. Women were supposed to be cleaning, stay at home with the kids, cook, make clothes, etc. The women who steered away from these “typical” roles, made very interesting characters. The majority of gender expectations came from the church and biblical history. Since Eve was the cause for the fall of man, there were a lot of anti-feminist feelings. Women were held accountable for the majority of man’s suffering, and were consequently inferior and to be dominated by men. Purity, holiness, and chastity, were all presumptions of women from outstanding role models like the Virgin Mary.

The number of female practitioners in the past were far lesser than male practitioners. This scenario was shown obviously by Chinese Civilization, which women’s work was mainly centered around their homes. The inferior status of female in the past caused female doctors far less represented than their male counterparts. It is well-known that women have inferior positions in Chinese Civilization. The behaviour of a traditional ideal woman was governed by the “Three Obediences and Four Virtues”.

Many believe that nursing has always been a female profession, but contrary to belief, it was not uncommon to find a male nurse taking care of the sick and the dying, even though, they did not receive as much as attention by scholars and historians as did women throughout nursing history. For instance, during the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire, monks would take care of the sick and the old, which continued throughout the Middle Ages, especially when the Plague was rampant throughout Europe. The Alexian brothers are a prime example of a male organization, during the Middle Ages whose duty it was to take care of the ailing (Rangel, Kleiner, & Kleiner, 2012). Even before the Roman Empire, both men and women would have basic knowledge of plants and herbs that would be use to take care of the ailing. For men in nursing they have always been connected to an religious organization such as monasteries, priest or spiritual leaders, or brotherhoods. By being connected to a spiritual organization there was no discrimination between men and women because they were doing their spiritual job. But once religion started to disappear from nursing and it became more systematic such as the reforms that Florence Nightingale helped to enacted (McMurry, 2011, p. 23) which slowly pushed men out of this profession while women remain and became the majority.

Nursing profession were once predominated by men. There was an extensive contribution of men in nursing yet it was not visible enough in the nursing history. Historically, the role of caring for the ill was performed by men in the monastery system of the early Catholic institutions. However, there was a drastic change during 1860s and 1870s where women excelled extensively in nursing field (O’Lynn & Tranbarger, 2007). This is where nursing starts to be dominated by women which were ushered by Florence Nightingale whereas for men who tried to enter the female-identified profession tends to face gender discrimination from the society.