Women in the Middle Ages

Christian convents in the Middle Ages provided women
 one alternative to married life.

Women were widely considered inferior during the Middle Ages. Even though some women possessed considerable, and often extraordinary power, most of them were very poor and had to work 12 hours every day just to get by. Behind every great king and ruler, was a woman. The influence of women during the Middle Ages is often underestimated. Most women of the Middle Ages were totally dominated by men. Any man in the family could order a woman to do as he wished. If a woman refused, she was beat into submission, as disobedience was considered a crime against God. As stated in The Guerrilla Girls, “In classical civilization, women were the virtual prisoners of the men in their lives, but medieval women took part in almost every aspect of public life”(The Guerrilla Girls, 18). Women in the Middle Ages were treated as the second-class members within their social class. They were taught to be obedient to their husbands and were expected to run the household and raise children. Their role in the society, however, was much more complex, while some medieval women achieved a high level of equality with men. Women in the Middle Ages did have it rough but they just needed different paths; which was joining the convent for some. The Guerrilla Girls also specified, “Joining a convent freed women from the demanding roles of wives and mother. Families sent girls as young as five or six years old to nunneries. For some it was to live a religious life, for others it was because their parents had blown the family fortune on their sisters dowries”(The Guerrilla Girls, 21). Joining the convent was one way, women found piece in life, where they lived life by, for, and about God and women.

Sofonisba Anguissola An Italian
 Renaissance painter born in
Cremona.

Women in Renaissances were either married to a man or Jesus. If the family couldn’t afford to marry all the daughters or any, in some cases, they were sent to join the convents. Some women, growing middle class sometimes worked in shops, though this was more common in Northern Europe than in Italy. However, even in Italy women of the lower classes had a greater visible presence in the streets than did those of the upper classes, and would meet at communal wells to trade gossip and news. Furthermore, with time, women freedom was little by little progressed. Women started to appear more on the streets and in work places. Art became more meaningful, beyond detailed and painted by extraordinary women. Sofonisba Anguissola’s example opened up the possibility of painting to women as a socially acceptance profession, while her work established new conventions for self-portrait by women and for Italian genre painting. As Whitney Chadwick states in Women, Art, and Society, “Thus the first woman painter to achieve fame and respect did so within a set of constraints that removed her from competing for commissions with her male contemporaries and that effectively placed her within a critical category of her own”(Chadwick, 77). Life for women in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissances was difficult but as Europe progressed, life got better.

Women participated in many artistic and published products of their time, however, due to gender discrimination, and the unfairness, their names were not published onto these entities. Women were purposely put in unskilled activities due to the opinions and arrogant men who assumed women were not as intelligent. However, many artistic works, proves that women were just as talented as some men, if not, than more. Taking Sofonisba Anguissola for example again, her age and gender, prevented her from engaging and achieving more from the work she did. It is obvious that she held this great talent that was not valued that but definitely valued years after her death. Women overcame the hardships, proving themselves over and over again through their art and hard work.

Sofonisba Anguissola self portrait 1561.

Feminism in the 19th Century: Women's Rights, Roles, and Limits

This link gives more information on what women in the 19th century went through and how they overcame these hardships. Also includes  a short video on it.

Women in Middle Ages-Renaissances

Youtube video which expands on infamous women in the Middle Ages-Renaissances.

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson,          

             1990. Print.

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: 

Penguin, 1998. Print.