The Great Divide Between Women and Men

Throughout history, women struggled trying to survive in a world dominated by men. With the influence created by men, the challenges women faced have not change much. Humans are constantly subject to expectations created by society. One of the darkest times for women can be dated back to the Middle Ages, where society expected more from women than ever. The role of women was to be in charge of the household and take care of the kids. This can be all blamed on the Catholic Church since they began this ideology, which caused women to suffer and be obedient to their husbands. Most women lost their youth at an early age since they had to get married by the age of 14 and one year later they would have their first kid. The worst part about this is that they did not have the right to choose their husband, it was all arranged by their families. Besides taking care of the house and kids, women from the working class also had to support their family financially. In addition, the life span for an average person in the Middle Ages was relatively short and for a woman it was shorter because of the dangers of giving birth. Women did not have the time to live their life to the fullest. We can say that women had an amazing role during this time due to their involvement yet struggle with society.

            The Middle Ages also known as the Dark Ages was especially hard on women especially women of the arts. Reasons Why Middle Ages is Also Called “Dark Ages”.Women could not read or write, it was almost impossible for them to receive an education and this is one of the reasons why there are a few women artists during the time. The Church was also superstitious towards women who were smarter and could be deem as a witch. Women were greatly oppressed by society. One of the main reasons is that their husbands would sign any work created by their wives, basically they would loose their authorship. This is supported and stated from the book The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art by the Guerrilla Girls, “Few of these artists signed their work, so it’s not easy to attribute specific works to individual artists. Instead it is the patrons, whose names were recorded, who get the credit. For once, male artists are as forgotten as the females” (p20). This shows how the art women created was not given the value it deserved or maybe it was better than what a man could’ve achieved. It also showed women’s work were deemed inferior because a man did not write it. The prejudice towards women limited women’s right to creativity.

            The same way women were treated unfairly when it came to art; they were also treated unfairly when it came to the wages:

            The sin of wages, in the 12th-century England, men were embroiders too, and naturally, they got paid more: women earned only 83 percent of what men earned per day. Believe it or not, this was better than it is today in the U.S.: women average less than 70 cents for every dollar earned by men… (Guerrilla, 21)

The Medieval Woman: An Illuminated Calendar for 1993.
Peasant working women 

          This shows how unfairly they were treated and what role they had in society. If you were a peasant woman your situation was not the best since you were trained to serve your family and obey the orders of your husband. For the noble women the situation was better due to their influence, since they came from money and got more respect from society. Noble women were also expected to be educated and have knowledge in the arts to a certain degree. They could also inherit titles and property from their father if there was no male heir to the inheritance. Even if there is a male heir, sometimes the brother or father will grant pensions to the sister or daughter.

          With the start of the Renaissance, history for women began to change since they started to join guilds, which were organizations that helped them accomplish what they couldn’t in previous years in terms of art. Another way for women to learn art was if their fathers would teach them in order to help them with their workshops. Several women learned how to paint this way and embroider by the tutelage from their fathers. On the Artnet News it states, “Apart from joining a convent, women also learned how to paint through their fathers. Male artists often taught their daughters to work for them in their workshops, and several notable female artists began their careers this way, including Lavinia Fontana, Barbara Longhi, Marietta Robusti, and Fede Galizia.” This means that men played an important role when it came to the development of women in the arts field. Even though men taught women how to paint in order to receive help in their workshops, women got the change to learn about art and develop their own abilities.

Attributed to Lavinia Fontana, Venus and Cupid, oil on panel, sold at Sotheby's New York

During the 19^th century, women began a long struggle for equality. The 19^th century also marked an era of great technological advances with the help of growing factories and new tools. Technology was mass-produced and one of the inventions that changed art for women was the camera. The camera allowed anyone to utilize it. Therefore, women were allowed to use the camera and it was also a form of art. Unlike painting and other handcraft art, the camera did not require learning special techniques or prior experiences. Photography became an art most accessible to women.

 

Lady Clementina Hawarden is rated as one of the most influential Victorian fine art photographers, blazing the way for women in the profession when it was dominated by men. Above, one of her daughter's, Isabella Grace, strikes a pose in the 1860s

Click here in order to read more about Lady Clementine Hawarden.

         The struggle for women to fight for their right to creativity is never ending. Even before the Middle Ages and to modern times, women are viewed inferior and women faced many obstacles in getting their work credited and published. Nevertheless, women has come a long way and gained many recognition for their interpretations of art.

 

The horse fair Rosa Bonheur 1855

Work Cited

• Girls, Guerrila. "The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, and The 19th Century." The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.
•  Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

• Field, Tara. "Women Painters during the Italian Renaissance - Artnet News." Artnet News. Artnet Magazine, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Feb. 2015.