Equality of the Sexes
What is the real difference between men and women? Is sex merely an anatomical difference, or are gender roles based on actual mental and emotional differences? Regardless of whether gender roles are socially constructed or naturally inherent, they exist and have since Adam and Eve.
The history of gender roles has been long and varied, frequently switching from near equality of the sexes to complete inequality and back. In the Middle Ages, gender limitations were prevalent in that the woman was seen as weaker, inferior to the “perfect embryo”: the male. However, some equality was to be granted through the institution that most perpetuated cultural differentiation of the sexes: the Church. Gender relations began to shift with the Doctrine of Intent and the idea of courtly love. Women began to assume a higher status than before as unique and emotive beings. Emotion is also changed from being an inferior aspect of the female self to an idealized state achievable by both sexes. Abelard and Heloise are some of the first examples of this heightened emotion, and their love was celebrated rather than condemned—at least in future years. However, this emotion was in direct conflict with the Church, and along with many other factors the Doctrine of Intent helped bring about the Reformation. The Reformation brought great changes to the ideals of marriage and the church’s role in marriage, but it also carried negative effects for the female’s identity. As Ozment explains,
Whereas the centuries between 1300 and 1500 had been something of a golden age for women—their educational and vocational opportunities increased, and with them their civic freedom—the sixteenth century turned back the clock. Women were again squeezed out of the guilds and public places and increasingly confined to the home—a reversal of fortunes for which some scholars have held the patriarchal ideals of the Protestant reformers especially responsible. (Ozment 5)
The Reformation that intended to restore the status of women through the expansion of marriage seemed to suppress them back into their position as faithful, dependant and subservient wives.
Two books represent this progression, or regression, in the concept of the male and female self and their roles in society, ‘The Letters of Abelard and Heloise’ translated by Betty Radice and ‘The Burgermeiste...
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...n in ‘The Letters of Abelard and Heloise’, where women are weak and culpable due to their responsibility in the Fall, yet able to regain some status through virtue. Anna Büschler’s inferiority is more attributed to the relegation of women to the private realm through marriage, and her failure to attain this marriage. Heloise desired to avoid the institution of marriage, for marriage was devalued as a woman’s solution to her sexual urges, and for Heloise it was the institution that would bind Abelard falsely to her and eradicate his love. For Anna, marriage was the only road available to women at the time, and it would be her only solution to ostracism. Heloise manages to eventually overcome gender limitations through education and religious devotion—the rejection of marriage and love for public work. Anna finally gains some status by marrying, and in choosing her husbands she also maintains her role in the public realm of the court systems. The road to equality of the sexes has been a long and arduous journey—however, with pioneers such as Heloise and Anna fighting limitations and defined notions of female sovereignty, it is a road that the modern woman has no right to flee from.
Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is an engaging examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a supreme testament to the grit and perseverance of a woman who challenged the inequalities of this distant age. The story, in Steven Ozment's meticulous and experienced hands, goes well beyond the litigious Anna to encompass much else about the 16th century, including the nature of sexual morality, the social individuality of men and women, the jockeying for power between the upwardly striving bourgeoisie and the downward sliding nobility, and the aftereffect of the reformation on private life. Steven Ozment's understanding of the Medieval German society and its effects on its citizens is amazing. Steven Ozment brings a medieval drama to life in this extensively researched and absorbing account of the 30-year lawsuit between Anna Buschler and her family. Anna's father was the Burgermeister (mayor) of the German town of Schwabisch Hall. He banished his daughter from the family home in 1525 after he read letters that proved her sexual connection with two men. Anna responded by suing her father. Anna Buschler looked predestined to a comfortable and serene life, not one of constant personal and legal conflict. Born into an eminent and respectable family, self-confident and high-spirited in her youth, and a woman of acknowledged beauty, she had a standing as the beauty of her hometown, and as something of a free soul. In an era when women were presumed to be disciplined and loyal, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the constant subject of defamation because of her indecent dress and flirtatious behavior. When her we...
The achievement of gender equality is one of the most important movements for advancement of society. In the High Middle Ages, however, it was even more challenging to bring such sensitive debate. Christine de Pizan, a highly educated and religious woman, chose an unusual pathway for a woman in her era that she became a writer to support her family. Christine’s work, “The Treasure of the City of Ladies,” could be seen as feminist because she offered a broad view of how an ideal artisan’s wife should be.
What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights.
During the nineteenth century and The Second Great Awakening, the rising market and the changing of women’s roles in society began affecting everything around society. Before the growth of the women’s roles, Matthias and the rest of the men in the community had control over the women, but as the women began gaining freedoms, the men lost their complete control over the ladies, and Matthias began to feel as if his rights as a man and as a laborer had been taken away (Fiorini, 3/10). The book’s has a strong relation to women’s rights during the era of The Second Great Awakening and the equality between men and women during the nineteenth century.
In the beginning of Holy Feast and Holy Fast, Bynum provides background information on the history of women in religion during the Middle Ages, highlighting the different statuses of men and women in society during that time. It is important to understand the culture of the Middle Ages and the stereotypes surrounding men and women to appreciate Bynum’s connection between status, accessibility, and piety. As an example, Bynum mentions that there appear to be basic differences between even the lives of holy women and the lives of holy men, which was because “women lacked control over their wealth and marital status” (Bynum p. 25). Men are clearly construed here as having more power in their daily lives than women—this is a simple, but major, distinction between the two genders which provides reasoning towards their divergence in practices. Women’s s...
Gender is not about the biological differences between men and women but rather the behavioral, cultural and psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Gender is socially constructed meaning it 's culturally specific, it 's learned and shared through gender socialization. What it means to be a woman or man is going to differ based on the culture, geographical location, and time. What it meant to be a woman in the US in the 19th century is different than what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. As cultures evolve over time so are the ideals of what it means to be man or woman.
When Eve took that bite of the Forbidden Fruit, she had no idea what she had gotten women-kind into. Whether or not you believe in the story of creation, the perception of women as corrupting and sinful had shaped women's social roles in Western Society for thousands of years. Augustine was one of the first to write about the wickedness of women, and the acceptance of this doctrine is evident in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise through their disdain toward marriage. Along with mass death of the Black Plague, came an opportunity for women to change the ways in which society viewed them. The great number of deaths in Europe often resulted in the situation where no male heirs remained which led to the legal ability of women to inherit land and property. This new idea teamed with the increase of women's wages due to worker shortages, led to women being able to marry younger men who hadn't yet accumulated the necessities for supporting a family. The idea of true love and companionship in marriage also grew with this trend and is expressed in both The Canterbury Tales and Leon Battista Alberti's On the Family. Women were slowly becoming the equals to males in a relationship which paved the way for gender equality outside of marriage.
Women in this era had just begun to secure some freedom from their typical cultural expectations. They were expected to take care of the children, cook, clean, sew and be presentable to society. As jobs were made available to women, only a low percentage of these women started to work outside of the home. This means that many women had chosen to stay inside the home to remain in the role of “house keeper”. Even though the woman attained some freedom they were still considered inferior to men. Men still had the most authority in the household and
This journal highlights advances women made in the seventeenth century. Upham goes into great detail about certain leaders in the advancement of women such as Catherine Trotter, Mary Pix, and Aphra Behn.
During the Victorian Age, 1830-1901, society had firm opinions on how they believed women should behave. The opinions, however, changed and varied a great deal over the span of the 71 years that made up the Victorian period. Towards the beginning of that era women were seen as the fairer sex, and the majority of their early lives were spent preparing for marriage. Over the course of the Victorian era, however, society made many different social, political, and economic changes, as well as witnessed the creation of many new gadgets. As society evolved throughout the Victorian era to be more advanced, it also became more aware of the need to treat women as equals in regards to rights, jobs, pastimes, and opinions. An example of inequality that women faced during that time was when men would keep up the appearance of being in a loving family, meanwhile they would be cheating on their wives and betraying their families (Frost 196). As Horrible as husbands cheating on their wives was, that was not what was seen as the issue at that time. The part of cheating during that era that bugged society was that if a woman committed the same trespass and was unfaithful in a marriage she would be publicly shamed (Frost 196). It is because of this injustice to women, and the many other examples of inequality that they faced that during the Victorian era, that the English wished to reform marriage. They felt that the structure of marriage was unfair to the females involved. By the end of the era, there had been a significant amount of ground laid towards female equality. The literary works The Lady of Shalott and The Goblin Market address and respond to the conflicts and roles of women as they changed over the course of the Victorian era. Both p...
However, the lives of these women were not as easy as it may have seemed. In retrospect, their roles, although seemingly wonderful, were actually oppressive. They were taught to be obedient and loyal to their husbands . Their opinions were devalued, and they were thought of as nothing more than an accessory to their husbands.
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
Women in different societies around the world, during the Middle Ages, experienced different hardships and roles. These hardships and roles helped shape how they were viewed in their society. Some women were treated better and more equal than others. In Rome, Medieval England, and Viking society, women’s legal status, education, marriage and family roles were considered diverse, but also similar. In certain nation’s women have more or less power than women in other nations, but none equal to the power that women have in America today.
Society is comprised of two different sexes and they are “men” and “women.” A person’s “sex” is determined when they are conceived and whether they are male or female will attribute to their upbringing. Women are known as the “reproductive” ones and therefore, are more nurturing and usually tend to the home. In contrast, a man exhibits different qualities such as masculinity, strength, and in most cases, superior to women. The two articles written by Joan Scott and Alice Kessler define the gender roles of women (and men) and elaborate on the differences that these two “sexes” have to endure in every aspect of their lives.
Equality is a concept mankind never is able to grasp correctly. Of course humans will always search for different solutions to create fairness, but factors such as human greed, ignorance of mass populations, and even biological aspects stagnates the process of equality. The oldest and most relevant discussion on equality lies with the difference of sex; man versus woman. Initially, men, because of their physical superiority, were given the prospects many women never even dreamt to have. Conversely, as time has progressed, women have fought this unfair treatment with demands of suffrage and similar rights to those of their male equivalents. Greatly enough, this generation has done an exceptional job in the challenge of overcoming sexism and inequality. However, will this search for equality ever end? When can we say we have created an equal race of men and women? The fact of the matter is that it is truly impossible to have equality between the sexes because of predisposed circumstances that are not easily controllable in the slightest bit.