Womens Roles

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Recommended: changes for women from the renaissance

Womens Roles

Depending on a woman^Òs role or class in society, she could be restricted or

praised by her words and actions. As in almost any civilization, money brings

certain advantages, the greatest one of the Renaissance times being education.

The upper class women were taught that silence towards and obligation to their

husbands was considered proper. Eloquence was equivalent to silence in the

male frame of mind. Keeping with the theme of male dominance, it has been said

that "Woman^Òs attempt to rule is an act of treason." (2) Any act of liberation

was seen as a violation against God, otherwise the people they called "men"

(2). The speech of a woman has been compared to "the naked of her limbs" (4)

inferring the spoken thought of a woman with any basis in intellect would be

shameful, embarrassing or something even to look down upon. Therefore, because

any outward act of intelligence was a "violation," this could be seen as a

distinct limitation.

But it has also been said that a woman could "speak very elegantly and she was

able in all those languages to answer ambassadors on the sudden." (1)

Although, it was only being applied to Queen Elizabeth I, the statement can

also be applied to other such greats in the past like Queen Isabella of Spain,

Anne of Brittany-Queen of Charles VIII, and of the mid 1440^Òs- Isotta Nogarola

(5). The idea of a woman^Òs intelligence was not completely denounced in

Renaissance times; everyone knew that it did exist, but the people went out

about repressing it in such a way that it was viewed by the majority of people

as something disgraceful and disreputable.

Within the homes, for upper class women, some of the problems as mentioned

above remained, but where not as severe always. Moving on, the upper class did

have some leverage when it came to their inner family circle. For example, the

wealthier families paid nurses to breast feed their children. But, then again,

because of this, the wealthier women bore more children, each time risking

their lives; for the morality rate of childbirth was 10% in all women. The age

range for the wealthy women to have children fell somewhere in adolescence

while the range for the poorer and merchant classes was their mid-twenties.

One of the most important thing when it came to raising a child was to make

sure that he or she had all his or her needs fulfilled, most importantly, once

again, being necessity of knowledge in social skills and humanitarian studies.

The poorer and merchant classes could not afford a formal education but men

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