Women in European History

"Changing attitudes in Britain Society towards women was the major reason why some women received the vote in 1918". How accurate is this view?

When women started working in factories, they faced hardships in working conditions. There were dangerous fumes and explosive dangers. There was always the risk of accidental explosions. It was even harder for mothers because there were not any child care policies offered by many companies. Women soon began making unions, such as the National Women’s Trade Union League, where women met and found ways to help raise women wage and have better work

     Many of people today feel trapped inside their homes, just how the women of Pre-Industrial Europe felt. Working day in and day out inside the homes, just to keep the family together, and make a little money on the side, these women were an integral part of Pre-Industrial families. Not only were the women important to Pre-Industrial European families, but so were the households. Much of the money was made in the households, and this is where families either succeeded or failed. The household and women of Pre-Industrial Europe played an integral role in the economy of the families, and more importantly, the women of these households kept them running

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

Throughout the three literary periods: The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, and The Renaissance; women have been portrayed and treated in different ways. The Iliad by Homer is about the Trojan War fought by the Achaeans and Trojans which was over the capturing of the wife of King Menelaus, Helen of Troy, by Paris. In The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, it is about a group of 29 people who are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to worship St. Thomas’s shrine; however, as Chaucer describes all these types of people not many of them are very religious and the stories they tell show the perspective and portrayal of women in this time. In Francis Petrarch’s poetry Rhymes, he describes his love and admiration for a woman who doesn’t love him back, yet Petrarch still confesses his love for her through his poetry. Through these stories and poems, The Iliad, The Canterbury Tales, and Rhymes, from the three time periods, the role of women is a progression of how they were looked at and their role in that time period, by men.

From the beginning of the war women were more active in government social affairs. As they protested for both peace and preparedness their

Women only worked in their homes caring for their family’s, they never had the opportunity to work outside of their homes in places such as factories or in the government and they had no benefits within the house until the war began. The war

The country had no choice but to have the women in the factories. They needed their help and were not going to complain about it. They knew with extra hands that, that was going to be an easier way to win the war. The government called on to the women and without hesitation, they went. They answered to whatever work that needed to be done. They worked a 52 hour week at 68 cents per hour. They were all prepared and knew that their “summer jobs” would end soon. There work dominated their nights and days. Most of their work was outdoors as well. Even though some women would much rather be at home helping there families other ways they still managed to get their other job complete as well.

In my paper I will be able to analyze how the war changed the thoughts of many women. The paper will look in-depth on how women were able to help in the war effort or how they expressed their patronage in a different way: protests. I will be able to draw information from many different sources including letters, magazines, polls, and books about women during this time frame. The sources I have provided above are a few of the primary sources that I will draw my information

During the long nineteenth century, political revolutions, industrialization, and European imperialism resulted in dramatic changes in the role of women in Western Europe and Eastern Asia. As industrialization spread in Western Europe, women were no longer able to fulfill their dual role as a mother and a worker. After the introduction of industrialization, laborious tasks were moved from the household to factories and women were forced to choose either the life of a mother or the life of a worker. Women who chose to leave their households were subjected to harsh conditions, low wages, and long hours. The majority of married and middle-class women were confined to the home, and deprived of an education and civil rights. Unlike the

Women's actual presence in city streets definitively questioned outdated ideas of femininity and consequent limitations on women's behavior. The significant parades, organized between 1910 and 1913, revealed women's shared deployment while visually representing woman suffragists’, which challenged their suggested social roles (Borada, 2002). The performance of suffrage parades became an act of public celebration, an illustration of social protest, and an exhibition of women's ability to partake in political societies. Subsequently, in women's lengthy battle for the right to vote, new political strategies and, more accurately, an approach of strategic opposition were created within the movements (Borada, 2002).

Marie de France lived in a time when social graces were paramount to a good reputation, lordships and to securing good marriages. A woman was considered less valuable if she lost her virginity; a wife was subjected to her feudal lord, father, brother or son after her husband’s death. According to Angela Sandison’s article “The Role of Women in the Middle Ages”, this was because in the Middle Ages the Church and the aristocracy controlled public opinion and the legal system. These authorities of the times believed a woman’s place was in a submissive role to a man. In The Lay of the Nightingale, we will see how this social and religious hierarchy will impact the behaviors of the three people involved.

The major reasons for women receiving in 1918 the vote in my opinion were divided into sections, political view, male view, war effort and changes in law and legislation. Whilst some historians argue that the women’s work during WWI in factories and other work programmes radically changed male ideas about their role in society other traditional historians suggest that the government passing the legislation to give women the vote in 1918 was almost a reward for their efforts I believe that this explanation too simplistic. This is mainly due to the large amount of other factors that had to happen in order for everything to align and women to get the vote. For example it can be said that the war ‘smoothed the way for democracy’ and so there are other factors which come into significance, such as, the efforts pre-war by suffrage campaign groups ,WSPU & NUWSS, and growing equality with men. Whilst this essay will attempt to recognise the importance of the view that the war effort had the largest driving force during WWI by the women was significant to women receiving the vote it also intends to highlight that things were not so simple and also highlight other factors involved.

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.

Women’s figures have been represented differently all around Europe. From its prehistoric origins until contemporary art, there have been massive shifts after each era. What was considered aesthetically pleasing through a certain period of time was mainly influenced by its social and economic context. The way we will analyze by what means women’s figure have been represented in European art, will be by chronologically taking each period of time or “era” in which there was a major art movement, by then describing its social and economic state, subsequently looking at a famous artist of that time period, analyzing his/her way of living, and by finally analyzing one of he’s/her famous artwork which eventually depicts a woman’s figure that can then be analyzed. There are nine main time