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History on gender inequality
History of the past and present of gender inequality
History on gender inequality
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Women in society were always put as not being equal to men. During the Renaissance, women were inferior to men; women in different classes had different roles. Low class women were expected to be housewives and take care of everything to do with the house. Working class women were expected to work for their husbands and help them run their business. They would work along side with their husbands and then go home and take care of the household. Upper class women may have had servants and workers working for them but the women were still expected to take care of the house hold.
Gene Brucker’s Giovanni and Lusanna is a story introducing two main characters, Lusanna and Giovanni, in Florence during the Renaissance. The story is a confrontation between the two and their marital status against the law. The story starts off with both Giovanni and Lusanna’s relationship. Both of the two seem to not agree with the fact that they are married, so both of them tell their side of the story to the court. While Giovanni believes he has not partaken in any such actions and refuses to make it a public marriage, Lusanna believes otherwise. Lusanna ended up winning the case, but
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But in that time, all that mattered was who a person was and their connections. Giovanni was a young man from a family with much respect and power. Because of his family, Giovanni was held at upper class and had money, which meant he could have had any women he chose. Giovanni also had lots of connections to many people within the society. He believed that the upper classes will always the power no matter where or when a person lives. Lusanna, on the other hand had no power compared to Giovanni. Lusanna came from a not so wealthy family. Her father was am artisan, and worked very hard to have them survive. She was very beautiful and had many lovers before was arranged to a marriage. She married Andrea who later
In the book, Giovanni and Lusanna, by Gene Bucker, he discusses the scandalous actions of a Florentine woman taking a wealthy high status man to court over the legality of their marriage. Published in 1988, the book explains the legal action taken for and against Lusanna and Giovanni, the social affects placed on both persons throughout their trial, and the roles of both men and women during the time. From the long and complicated trial, it can be inferred that women’s places within Florentine society were limited compared to their male counterparts and that women’s affairs should remain in the home. In this paper, I will examine the legal and societal place of women in Florentine society during the Renaissance. Here, I will argue that women were the “merchandise” of humanity and their main objective was to produce sons.
The story starts out with Lusanna as a married woman who caught the eye of a wealthy young man named Giovanni. As time wore on they allegedly fell in love and enjoyed all of the pleasures of their love. It was later claimed by Lusanna that Giovanni had promised to marry her in the event of her husband¹s death. Her husband soon died a questionable death that left open the possibility of poison. Unlike today¹s world divorce was unheard of, and unacceptable.
Maria had no authority over her restless family. The source of the conflict between Antonio and Maria originates from her oldest sons taking to going where they please and not caring about their parent’s wishes. The burden of pleasing their parents passes from the eldest sons to the youngest one. With the sole duty of pleasing his parents, Tony internally rebels against their wishes instead seeking to set to rest his churning mind by seeking his own beliefs. His brothers console themselves about abandoning their family by saying that “Tony will be her priest” (Anaya 36) and not knowing that the “dreams of their father and mother [haunt] them” (Anaya 36) also haunted Antonio. Having the responsibilities of his brothers and his family shape the way he grows and thinks. He isn’t just thinking about himself he also has the problems of redeeming his family on his head. Through the story and through Ultima Tony realizes that he is not bound by obligations and can instead shape his own
The Two Gentlemen of Verona deals with the debate over the relative merits of love and friendship between two young courtiers Valentine and Proteus. One of the great debates of the Renaissance was the discussion of whether the love of a woman was a sentiment more noble than the friendship that might exist between men. We also see the first instances of later female heroines in the qualities of Julia and Silvia.
Some of women in this time period’s family roles are very similar to what is expected of them today. The most common jobs were “domestic work, including teaching young females their roles for later in life, cleaning the house, and preparing food” (¨DeVault¨). Men would often be working during the day. Women's jobs were very crucial because if all they did around the house. Not all kids were able to attend school so it was up to the mother. Though not every one was married at this time, “common arguments against married women working were that they were taking jobs away
In eighteenth century novels, a common means of discussing the role of women in society is through the characterization of two good sisters. The heroine of such a novel is a pure, kind young woman who also has a streak of spunkiness. Her sister may be more good and kind, but she is more submissive and reserved. I would like to look at these sisters (and their mothers) in Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance , and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.
The famous film based on Mario Puzo’s novel, is based on the crime of the Sicilian family, the Corleone’s. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and successfully released in the year of 1972. The Corleone’s are known for their dedication in their family business, and led problems with the women in the film and novel. Women played no at all role within the family business, they never had a say in it or allowed to even hear about it. Their task was to simply be caregivers. These concepts can be expressed through Kay and Connie.
Historians and scholars often overlook the part that women played in the Renaissance. Did women have a Renaissance? The period did not occur in a male only vacuum; women played an important part in the changes taking place across Europe. No matter a woman’s station in the class system, women, were still considered the sinful daughter of Eve, the downfall of man. Into this world stepped Isabella d’Este, one of the great women of the Renaissance.
William Shakespeare said: “Women may fall when there's no strength in men” (Romeo and Juliet). Throughout history gender role have been a big, whether someone is a feminist or someone believes there is no equality between males and females; everyone has different opinions when it comes to the matter of gender roles. The same thing can be said about William Shakespeare who was a feminist (Shakespeare of Stratford). This ideology can be seen in his play Much Ado about Nothing. In this comedy Shakespeare focuses on two pairs of lovers named Claudio and Hero who are set to be married in a week but before their marriage day, they plan to conspire with Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon to trick their friends Beatrice and Benedick to admit their love for each other. Don John, the brother of Don Pedro, meanwhile plots to prevent marriage of Claudio and Hero by accusing Hero of being unfaithful. Don John initially succeeds in his plan as Hero is accused and ashamed at the marriage ceremony, but at the end Claudio and Hero are united and marry each other. Also, Beatrice and Benedick finally declare their love for each and dance at the end of the play. Shakespeare uses a lot of sources for this comedy and one of them is “Orlando Furioso” written in 1591, which gave Shakespeare the idea of Hero and Claudio’s marriage and Don John’s plot to prevent it. Another source Shakespeare used to write the play is the courtier written in 1588, which gave him the idea of the romance between Beatrice and Benedick. And also “La Prima de la Novelle” written in 1554 by Matteo Bandello gave Shakespeare the idea of putting the setting in Messina, Italy (Shakespeare in quarto). Because Shakespeare was a feminist, some of the women appear as supporting and central...
Women, in general, were expected to be able to run their homes, taking care of their spouses and children in whatever form was needed at the time. They were looked down on as uneducated without the ability to understand the more intricate knowledge of politics and the running of businesses of any kind. They had no rights except for what they received from the graciousness of their husbands. Their opinions did not matter, in the long run and they were treated as inferior, expected to stay in their place unquestioning and unassuming.
The question of women’s agency, in moving history holds a long history dating back to the ancients, then turning away from that in small degrees during the Renaissance. Most notable in this change comes from the capital of education, the Italianate states. Home to rife differences in attitudes towards women, it also hosts the origins of the discussion around women’s purpose. The current field largely finds inspiration from writers during the American 1970s women’s rights movement, and it shows in the modern origins and their influence. However, the field’s creation date loom farther back than such a recent movement, easily dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Beginning with a negative view of the female sex as inferiority, the study of women and their rights progressed to Giovanni Boccaccio’s creation of female biography in 1374, and further developed with a female voice in 1405 under the pen of Christine de Pizan. Clearly, none of the prestigious scholars could have predicted the alterations and growth of the discussion surrounding a people group often considered subhuman.
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
In the Renaissance era, freedom of speech was not identified throughout the people and society. This gave men the authority to be superior to women, which was unjust. “ The ideal women was rarely seen and never heard in public: women were expected to be housewives and take care of everything to do with the house.” (Cloud). Women had no opinion or say in absolutely anything. It was uncommon to see women talk or gossip with each other because men did not tolerate it. Women had no right to speak freely or express how they felt. Women had no say or opinion; the masculine sex had power over everything and anything. Most men treated women extremely awful, in other words, they were treated as slaves in their society and relationships. During the Renaissance women wished for equality between genders but the church and society furiously disagreed because they insisted on viewing women as the lower sex. Women did not agree with that because they felt it was unreasonable but there was nothin...
During the times in which Shakespeare lived, women had certain roles which ensured they were a permanent underclass to men. In Women in Shakespeare’s world by Theresa D. Kemp, Kemp states that “The roles of early modern women included daughters and wives, sisters and mothers; they learned and worked and played but for the most part they were not expected to be school girls (whining or otherwise) As women they were expected to be the slightly beautiful beloved and not the balladeer. Women were not seen as fit to play soldier or the judge. And as keepers of the homes and the households, as in our own time, women withdrawn from a “world too wide” ( 29). This quote from Kemp shows how victorian women were seen a just a pretty face to do as told. They were to be obedient and non opinionated. A woman of that time period was very objectified and used, basically women weren't real people.
In the 16th century, women and men were defined as having specific and contrasting roles within society. Men were defined as being powerful and dominant while women were defined as being submissive and meek. These ideals can be seen across cultures and throughout time. With these definitions of gender roles in place, the text suggests that gender is a social construct therefore qualities of femininity and masculinity are subjective. This is shown when Portia cross dresses as the lawyer Balthazar (IV) and when the truths of the rings are discovered by the two women (V). The strong female characters in the play exemplify that women are not confined to their social construct as they manipulate the male characters. During the 16th century only