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Women's status during the renaissance
Women's status during the renaissance
Attempts to raise women status in renaissance Europe
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The essay is taking us back to the Early Modern Period of France, initiated from the 1550s to the Revolution that gave its head ups in 1780s-1804.This is based on Nantais is in Western France. As per the author, the call for separation of a property when brought to a legal court sought much attention of the petitioners, judges, witnesses, and outsiders in a marital matter of a couple. This, however, is quite harsh on a men's side as this form the expectations of how a marital status should be like. The petition must only be provided to a woman if he genuinely faces severe physical abuse by the spouse or deadly threats. Moreover, there was evidence of Provost's court giving separation right were nearly impossible in the early modern era. The
The region of Alsace-Lorraine has historically produced conflict between France and Germany. As a result of the Alsace-Lorraine provincial boundary changes, the people within the area had and still withhold individual national and cultural identities. These unique identities emanate from French, as well as German traditions. As time progressed so did the sentiment of the Alsatians. In 1871, when Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine, its citizens objected German rule. Conversely, in 1919 when France reclaimed the territory, the people in it began to yearn for the formally loathed German rule. The national and cultural identity of Alsace-Lorraine fluctuated inversely with its territorial modifications.
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
Bill Cosby once said that, “For two people in a marriage to live together day after day is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked.” J.J. Lewis (1995-2009) This famous comedian could not have been more correct when recognizing that every marriage will face a multiple number of challenges and is often difficult. Couples, once married, must find a way to end any struggles in order for the marriage to be successful. Marital traditions have changed greatly over the centuries and due to this, the opinion of what an ‘ideal marriage” consists of has changed as well. When reviewing the document “On Love and Marriage” the author (a Merchant of Paris) believes that marriage should not be an equal partnership, but one that pleases the husband to avoid conflict. This can be clearly seen through an examination of: the social, and political environment of the late fourteenth century, and the merchant’s opinions on the area of obedience to a husband, and how to avoid infidelity.
...o American colonies. Some colonies or loyalists remained faithful and became dependent on the British government. In the same way through the status of feme-covert, husbands had absorbed their wives’ legal identity. “She could exercise no choice in her political allegiance independently of her husband” (p.154). But few decades after the American Independence, “many states liberalized their divorce laws, making it easier for women to divorce husbands who abused or deserted them” (p.154). Married women were allowed to own and sell their properties independently. Due to economic crisis, husbands transferred their estate to their wives to shield them from creditors. Women had control over a family’s estate. “Despite the “new code of laws” drafted by her husband and peers, the principles and practices behind the feme-covert remained embedded in the legal system” (p.154).
During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church was the epicenter of most people 's lives and it influenced them greatly, and their rulings shaped many societies. In order to encourage civil relations and less greed and bloodshed the Catholic Church installed a rule of no longer allowing divorce. For some time divorce was used in order to sever ties with your spouse when they couldn’t provide an heir, land or financial gain, or as much as another suitor. This led to many divorces and serial marriages, bloodshed and out right injustice. Some may argue that these marriages weren’t entered in with high regards to such a hefty commitment knowing that it could simply be ended whenever either spouse pleased.
Martineau clearly had a strong political agenda in writing this story, however in doing so, she addresses the fundamental difference she sees in the roles of responsibility in marriage. In her mind, the husband and the wife have clearly defined roles, not so much along lines of production, but rather in terms of the household. That which is in the household, whether it is the domestic duties or financial responsibility, falls to the wife while it is the husband who is responsible for the income stream.
Women during the medieval period had certain role with their husbands, depending on his social status. The wives were placed into a class according to their husband’s line of work or social status (Time Traveler’s 54). This social status may be favorable, but not all wives were able to make it into the elite social status. Once the woman was committed, and married to her husband, she was totally controlled by her husband. Even though the wife was able to maintain the same social status of the husband, she lost a lot of rights after she married. Women during the medieval period not only lost a lot of their rights, but also became somewhat of a slave to the husband in many ways.
The article “Spousal Abuse” discusses that Victorian perception of religion, domestic principles, and laws allows men to justify “wife-beating.” Domestic violence during Victorian times is mainly attributed to the idea that the man is the ruler in all worlds. The man’s responsibility of being a protector is the main idea in contributing to domestic violence.
She takes the time to map out the ways in which marriage was degraded and then popularized to suite the changing needs of those in power. She uses a historical argument focusing on Catholic Church as an historic institution to show this fluid progression. Her piece also reminded me of Foucault because she is trying to show the ways in which the definition of marriage changes based on historical and social context. She especially focuses on a modern idea of companionate marriage, and how the ideal is steeped in unrealistic classist
Sherif Girgis wrote his article, “Marriage: Whose Justice? Which Diversity?” in response to John Corvino’s, “What Marriage Can Be” article. Corvino’s article introduced the inclusivist view of marriage and then attacked Girgis’ conjugal view of marriage, which was introduced in Girgis’ book, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense.” Corvino’s inclusivist view was meant to expand the definition of marriage, not re-define it (Corvino, p.6) and although Corvino’s defense of the inclusivist view was, “sophisticated, civil and well-informed” according to Girgis, it was also, “Contradicting virtually every philosophical and legal tradition until yesterday, it nonetheless offers no positive case for its thesis” (Girgis, p.1). Girgis obviously does not agree with Corvino’s inclusivist/revisionist view, but he does so on the basis that it has too many weaknesses. The conjugal view is superior as it most properly defines what true marriage is and should be. In the ensuing sections, I shall describe what the conjugal view of marriage is and why Girgis believes it to be superior to both the
How society views family roles, women, and sex, speaks to the idea of the time. Late Medieval Europe viewed these topics through the lens of the Catholic Church. These views began to a transition toward the lens of the law through events like the Reformation and voyages to the New World. Advances in science changed these ideas for it opened gateways of intellectual discourse. The French Revolution demonstrates the changes to understanding of family roles, women, and sex had changed; from a marriage which was wholesome where sex was sacred and a woman was to rear children to a marriage which was broken where sex was open to public scrutiny.
In the past, the French government granted certain French citizens capabilities that no other citizens had. One of those abilities was the right to contract polygamous marriages. She recognized that the granting of these rights create a snowball effect for more group-exclusive rights. She writes, “In other cases, groups have claimed rights to govern themselves, to have guaranteed political representation, or to be exempt from certain generally applicable laws.” The immunity from certain generally applicable laws, for instance, provide a loophole for men to engage in self-interested practices which may include a means of controlling women. In fact, Moller states that “In polygamous cultures, too, men readily acknowledge that the practice accords with self-interest and is a means of controlling women.” Such practices are both immoral and unfair to women as a collective whole and provide a reason for the support of universal human rights and equality of all individuals as
Batchelor, John. "Marriage and Divorce." Ainujin Oyobi Sono Setsuwa. Tōkyō: Kyōbunkan, 1901. N. pag. Print.
Gerson’s The Unfinished Revolution focuses primarily on three categorical families: egalitarian, neo-traditional, and self-reliant and one of her points states that family ideals are hardly permanent. Gerson notes how the gender revolution changes family dynamics, especially in how marriage focuses not on the form of the relationship but the quality. She argues that the gender revolution actually improves family dynamics, especially the egalitarian families where equality is most promoted. It is possible to infer that Gerson in fact endorses a marriage where both spouses equally commit to the household and family, and is thus the ideal marriage.
When rights are alienable, such as in the case of “property in the person” this leads to dominium or absolutism. This theory that one can contract out part of their person as their “person” is alienable, is the basis for the employment contract. This model represents the change in paid work as an exchange of property. This employment contract developed in tandem with the marriage contract, with the subordination of wives presupposed by the institution of employment. Pateman is therefore arguing that there is a deliberate structure that causes subordination, and it is the product of there being an active choice at the heart of the contract. Subordination is thus ignored as there is a starting assumption in the example of the marriage contract, that women are more inclined to be subordinated. She is arguing that it is inherent throughout history that subordination is a mere fact of life predisposing some sectors of society to be dominated and separated from those with