Essay On Renaissance Women
Throughout history, the status of women in society has changed alongside shifting ideas and cultures. Surely then, men and women had different experiences during the Renaissance. Women did not thoroughly experience the Renaissance in 1400s Italy in terms of intellectual and cultural rebirth because of the limitations of expression and lack of academic recognition from society. Such limitations that mainly involved domestic life and education inhibited most women's attempts at making significant contributions to the fields that defined the time. Their attempts to bypass these restrictions, along with their successes, display the degree to which society limited their opinions and actions. While some may define the Renaissance as a period of
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In Greek social structure, integration into classes applied mainly to men because women were reliant on them for any degree of social standing. In a Renaissance interpretation of these Greek views per se, the status of women was low and they were almost entirely dependent on men. This reliance backed the idea that a man should never serve anyone lower than him, such as a woman, as Christine De Pisan observes in The City of Ladies (p. 3, para. 1). This relationship is related to the one that existed between citizens and royalty. In essence, woman was to man as man was to a prince; if a prince were to serve a common man, it would be considered damaging to his reputation. As Gadol poses in her article, women were no more than an accessory for men (pp. 132-133). In On Wifely Duties, Francesco Barbaro lays out a comprehensive “manual” for wives that further explains this relationship. Chapter two of the document best represents how a wife was expected to suppress her emotions and behave for her husband's benefit where he writes, “I therefore would like wives to evidence modesty at all times and in all places.” (176; para. 2). This subservient role that was given to women ultimately reduced them to tending to the household—an important responsibility, but practically insignificant compared to their potential outside the
In Greek social structure, integration into classes applied mainly to men because women were reliant on them for any degree of social standing. In a Renaissance interpretation of these Greek views per se, the status of women was low and they were almost entirely dependent on men. This reliance backed the idea that a man should never serve anyone lower than him, such as a woman, as Christine De Pisan observes in The City of Ladies (p. 3, para. 1). This relationship is related to the one that existed between citizens and royalty. In essence, woman was to man as man was to a prince; if a prince were to serve a common man, it would be considered damaging to his reputation. As Gadol poses in her article, women were no more than an accessory for men (pp. 132-133). In On Wifely Duties, Francesco Barbaro lays out a comprehensive “manual” for wives that further explains this relationship. Chapter two of the document best represents how a wife was expected to suppress her emotions and behave for her husband's benefit where he writes, “I therefore would like wives to evidence modesty at all times and in all places.” (176; para. 2). This subservient role that was given to women ultimately reduced them to tending to the household—an important responsibility, but practically insignificant compared to their potential outside the