Renaissance Women
During the Renaissance, women were not seen as educational or independent. The women of the Renaissance were the man’s shadow. They were regarded more for their delicacy and beauty rather than their intelligence. Their main role in life during that time was to marry, have children, and to take care of the household. Despite these facts, some women were able to break out of these statistics. I believe that these women of that time should be honored simply for the fact that they were ones who made a name for themselves, and not just by their looks. This is significant being that the fight for equality has been a long and treacherous one and some are not aware that it began way back in those times.
To our knowledge women were not then known to be intelligent- they held the work of their homes and nothing else. I will first explain how women were seen by men and what they were entirely valued for. After I have given the facts on that, I will explain the path to equality- how they came about doing so. Which was lead in part by women distributing their own literary works. I will give examples of works of the women that gave insight on how tough it really was for them and how they shouldn’t have been looked down upon.
In the text, “The Humanistic Tradition”, we are given the idea that women were only good for house tasks and were solely known for their beauty. Directly quoted, “Renaissance women’s occupation remained limited to service tasks, such as midwifery and inn keeping.” Once a woman married in the Renaissance, their opportunities would become limited because the man was considered superior. Women were looked so down upon it was believed that women were too slow and delicate to uphold the responsibility of ra...
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...kept quiet simply because of the superiority of men- unlike Lucrieta and Christine. The fact that women were kept in their homes to clean confirms that they did not do much to change this stereotype. Since the Renaissance, much has changed, thankfully. I cannot imagine how strenuous it must have been for women to constantly live under the shadow of someone who did not create them- men.
Work Cited
De Pisan, Christine. "The Book of the City of Ladies." Hanover College. N.p.. Web. 29 Oct 2012. .
Deslauriers, Marguerite, "Lucrezia Marinella", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = .
Fiero, Gloria. The Humanisitc Tradition. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 34-39. Print.
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 Renaissance was beneficial in many ways, from its enlightening ideas, to its art. However, there are many debates about how The Renaissance changed the lives women. Did women benefit from The Renaissance?
In the traditional political history of Italy the people outside of the ruling class of the society were rarely studied. Only with the use of social history did the issues of class and gender begin to be debated by scholars. Numerous recent articles have done a great job of analysing particularly men of high status. In this paper I will look at the lower classes of Renaissance Florence. More specifically, I will center my focus on the lives of women during this era, how they were treated and viewed by people of other classes and how women were viewed and treated by men.
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. "Do Women Need The Renaissance?" Gender & History 20.3 (2008): 539-557. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
In the novel Othello, written by William Shakespeare, there are a variety of ways in which women are portrayed. There are strong willed women such as Emilia, who stands up to the men, especially to her husband. If he is wrong she would openly admit that he is incorrect. There are also women who are thought to be a possession as well as extremely submissive to their husbands such as Desdemona. She is the type of woman that will obey her husband to the day she dies. Desdemona believes that her husband is always right and he will never do anything that will lead her into the wrong direction. Many of the women in this time thought the same way. They are viewed as house workers, cooks, and teachers to the children. In addition to those qualities women obtain, having no authority in marriages is also added to the list. In this novel, there is judgment against women because they are “unequal” to men. They are not allowed to do the same as men for the reason that they do not possess the same qualities as men. Men were considered to be superior to women. Women were treated as their “slaves.” In contrast, today’s time women now have power. They have the right to vote, run for office, and even work outside their homes. Women now play the part as the male and female figure in the households. They are considered independent women, not relying on a male figure. Even if they are married now, they do not listen to everything that their husbands tell them to do. It states in the Bible that a male figure is the head of the households; however women today have strayed away from that view that they had back then. They want to be the dominate figure. Times have really changed from the past to the present. W...
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