Women in the Renaissance Essay Example for Free

Wo manpower in the Renaissance EssayWhat was life like for Renaissance wo manpower? If you were a woman in that time, would you have desire it? and How was the treatment towards women? Questions like these keep pestering my mind as I research about the Renaissance. It is senseless at how little exemption women were given compared to this day and term. Not all that, it is clear and obvious that men in the 14th to 16th century in England were given special privileges, while females were non. This is absurd.Women should have been tough as equals with men and without inferiority. The English Renaissance was a period of time filled with great injustice, jumpy treatment, and unfair consequences. The life that most women live currently is a luxury compared to the Renaissance since females may major(ip) in whatever career she wants, choose who she wants to bond, and in general, make her own decisions. Yet, it has non al dashs been this way. In the Renaissance, females were d eemed inferior to males and there were laws that restricted womens rights.For example, Protestantism underscored womens wifely and maternal roles and simultaneously closing run through religious orders that had heretofore offered women a realm for their exercise of spiritual and social power (Smith 25). Men could not even give females any power, even if was just religious powers. Any authority for females was looked down upon, for men believed women would misuse it since as inheritors of eves sinfulness, women were pronounced disobedient, lustful, and physically foul (Smith 25). Females were assumed that way so thus were the inferior gender and treated differently.As males were superior, it was accepted that they had the higher authority so their wives and daughters followed his orders. The daughters had no say to who her father conjoin her to. The main purpose of daughters was as a bride. If they could not marry or lacked the dowry to become nuns, they had to find work (Women 324). Almost all girls were not allowed to patch up who they could wed. Their father primarily chose the groom and marriages were often a matter of business. It did not matter whether or not his daughter love the guy.In addition, the fathers expected certain values for girls chastity, obedience, and hush up These were thought to prepare daughters for their second stage of life, as a wife (Women 324). Chastity was needed because girls could not be married without it, obedience for listening to the betrothed, and silence to not argue with the preserve. Sometimes, young girls married men twice or three times their age (Women 324). Imagine having a spouse as old as ones father, or worse, grandfather In nobles, the girls had their husbands chosen already at the age of ten or eleven.After five or six age, on the actual wedding, they would meet each other for their first time (Women 324). They were usually married to men with power and wealth the main reason of the wedding meant shar ing a lords property or a noble name and continued success. Many women married men they just knew, or never met. After following her fathers orders, she then had to obey the demands of her new husband (Women 324). Women in the family had different roles depending on what social class they were. The roles of mostly upper class women consisted of different struggles than that of demean class women.For example, upper class women were, placed with crippling limitations on developing artistic or intellectual skills a woman might possess (Women in the Renaissance). If a woman had sophisticated abilities and wealth, there were much marital offers that came from other nobles. Also, the girls, from a young age, were taught needlework, etiquette, and other talents. In the lower classes, women tended to have less freedom of movement in lower classes they were always handicapped by the physical strains and dangers of constant childbearing and by endless hard labor to provide for the family (W omen in the Renaissance).Most of the lower class had to do all their work themselves instead of hiring helping hands or servants since the majority could not afford it. only the cooking, shopping, and cleaning were usually done by the females. They had no time for etiquette and needlework scarce for other labors in the household. Marriage in households was not the best either. Man ruled, women was his property, and he was free to humiliate, strike, and even murder her (Gail 40). That sounds biting but it happened.The husbands were even able to murder their wives if their wives were caught in adultery. adultery was consistently viewed as a wifes crime punished by execution and viewed as treason (Women 317). It was not unheard of for the husband to kill her since divorce did not exist. It seemed that it was always the wifes fault for seducing other men (Adultery). Regularly, men engaged in sexual relations outside marriage without having to be killed. Women were often married as a matter of business and not by love so of course they would be unhappy and unsettled in their relationships with their husbands. Most tended to simply submit their lives and deal with the marriage.Others refused to accept their fate and looked to encounter their own desires elsewhere. Yet, for a woman who gives into her desires is thought to be deviant however, the male supremacy in ahead of time modern England only perpetuates the female desire to be unbound by societal expectations (Adultery). Would it not be frustrating to have to be with a man one did not love? Since males controlled females, it was only predictable that women would want to rebel. There were women who wanted to express their opinions but in other ways.The only way women could rise was through education and struggle (Gail 42). It was only reasonable that women could finally be noticed through their intellectual abilities. However, most men of the day, including churchmen, scholars and educators, stood together against women, and constantly spoke of them with contempt (Gail 42). Males believed it ridiculous for women to be able to have a formal education instead of learning how to be a proper wife. In spite of all this, the Renaissance was known as the time of the rise of women.It was Spain that was known as the field of learned women due to the Saracen influence (Gail 42). The Saracen women were granted spiritual equality to men and women because of the Prophet Muhammad, whose followers invaded Spain in 711 (Gail 42). Juan Luis Vives, a tutor in Spain, educated Queen Isabellas four daughters and then traveled to England, where he stirred interest for educating girls (Gail 43). He published books that supported schooling for girls. He began this idea and others took it up. The notion of having virtually all females literate was a new thing.Not everyone agreed but there was a polished change. During the Renaissance women lost economic power, but, at least briefly, gained status and oppo rtunities for education (Did women have a conversion? ). The women would finally have literacy instead of lighter, more informal material. Not only that, the time of questioning of womens inferiority was the beginning of Querelles des Femmes, or the disputes about women (Women 325). The educated daughters of humanists, businessmen, and clergy wrote to counter arguments for female inferiority and mastery to men (Nym Mayhall 45).The women were finally taking actions for their treatment. No more would they keep waiting on men. One such woman was Christine de Pisan who wrote Livre de la cite des dames, or Book of the City of Ladies (Nym Mayhall 45). This was the first important intrusion of a woman to this discussion. Pisan argued about the schooling and training of women and how it was what made them inferior to men. Not only that, she challenge that womens subordination resulted not from womens natural inferiority but from mens resent of womens virtue (Nym Mayhall 46).Men know wha t females can achieve and feel threatened by the opposition That is why there is subordination between the genders. Other European women elaborated upon these opinions. Some include the cut author Marie de Gournay, British playwright Aphra Behn, and Venetian poet Lucrezia Marinella (Nym Mayhall 46). Many early feminists wrote texts that contradicted notions of womens inferiority inherited from absolute authors and Christina texts and arguing that women were fully human, not restricted by their natures or biology (Nym Mayhall 46).This led more females and males to move in this heated discussion. The idea of equality between genders was beginning to change for the better bit by bit. There were famous females who began to defy men and act upon their beliefs. Some wrote and published their views, others simply followed their dreams that men had taken away, and a few noblewomen used their wealth and status to influence things. The females showed that women were as good as men, whet her they wish it or not. For instance, Isabelle dEste was a noblewoman who was the Marchesa of Mantua. She was not only a patron of the arts, but also an rapture to great artists like Titian and Da Vinci (Isabelle dEste). To name a few other women, there was the French writer Marie de Gournay, Venetian poet Lucrezia Marinella, and British playwright Aphra Behn (Nym Mayhall 46). These people tried to defend the reputation of women and show the excellence in females by creating literal works. Further women such as Italian Gaspara Stampa and French Louise Labes wrote poetry, romances, stories, novels, and plays (Women 326).Many other females wrote but compared to males, the published works were little. Yet, its the thought that counts. Women writers published their thoughts and opinions. Life in the English Renaissance was comparably challenging to that of our current life. There were more limitations and expectations for females. It would terrify most girls in this day and age to mar ry at such young ages and not even know who the groom is What if he was twenty years older?Such things were one of the many worries of girls in the Renaissance, alongside with household chores and duties. It was all because of the chance of creation born female. Four hundred years from the Renaissance, there is finally equality between both genders. though there may sometimes be evidence of inferiority, overall females have the freedom to choose and decide what they want and never have to be restricted by rules. There is no need to solicitude the consequences of reading a book in public or disobeying ones father in a matter of marriage.