Women Flashcards
Women as workers
- Book of Trades, Etienne Boileau, Women active in 86/100 trades in the Parisian Guilds (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages,6 )
- See card on urban women
Purpose of a marriage
PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE
- Majority of medieval women were married (65)
- Marriage elevated to a sacrament, rather than simply being seen as giving in to the “weakness of the flesh” (66)
- Peter Lombard: Rib signifies neither servant nor master, as the head or legs might, but companion at his side (67)
- Sexual relations were for creating new life. Sexual relations solely for pleasure was lustful (69)
Women as mothers
- Gendered roles more stressed than parental roles (98)
- Children is not the end, children raised to be good Christians is (99)
- Holy mother’s qualities of “…sensitivity, tenderness, self-sacrifice…” not reflected in courtly literature (99)
- More stress on woman’s care for her husband than for her children (101/2)
- Noblewoman normally employed wet nurse (140) but were still more active than fathers
- Children seperated from Noblewomen early to go to courts, monasteries ect to be educated (140)
- Noblewomen as guardians of their sons ie Blanche of Navarre, ruling from 1213-1222 (141)
- Urban women who were rich merchants were similar mothers to noblewomen, but labouring mothers suckled and cared for their own children (203)
How self-autonomous were women in this period?
- In nunnery, still dependent on male priests
- Abelard planned a double monastery headed by a man, as any other way would be a violation of natural order (32)
- In marriage, dependent and subordinate to men
- No legal rights to property ownership, or to create a legal case UNLESS husband was incapacitated (ie absent or insane) (92)
- As Widows, women under the protection of the church enjoyed liberties (95)
Female sexuality
- Questions for the confessant by Buchard of Worms: Has she masturbated, engaged in a lesbian relationship, commited bestiality?
- The fall was to satisfy Eve, not to tempt Adam
- More sexualised than man because she gives and receives ejaculate (71)
The status of women in relation to men
- A women’s marital status was noted, a man’s was not. Suggests more important consequences for women than men (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages,5 )
How did the medieval church view women in this period?
AS VIEWED BY THE CHURCH
- St Augustine: Created in image of man, so not equal to Adam created in the image of God. Deceived by Satan and then deceived Adam. (24)
- Seen as the “gateway to Satan” (23)
- Theological justification in the New Testament for “secondary role in Creation and Original Sin” (22)
- Certain sins attributed to them, including vanity, pride and greed (3)
- However, women partially redeemed by the Virgin Mary (Anselm of Canterbury) and Mary Magdalen the “repentant sinner”(24)
- Devotional sermons by Bernard of Clairvaux, Abelard
- Bernard of Clairvaux writing to ‘Sophia’ says woman are morally inferior but a virgin who has taken a vow of chastity is on another level (27)
IN THE CHURCH
– Denied access to a career in the church, as they couldn’t officiate, be ordained, or preach. (22)
- Men and women are equally eligible for salvation, but in the “temporal church” women are inferior (3)
- Even a nun was as limited in her roles as any other woman, plagued by “pollution fears” . Evident in that women priests were satarised on All Fools Day (28)
- - Paradox of women being elevated in theology, but suppressed in practice (32)
Should there be a history of women, if there is no history of men? (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages)
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Women as the fourth estate? (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages)
- Worshippers, Warriors and Workers were the three ‘classes’ recognised by contemporaries
12th century upheaval–> Socio-professional classes or ‘estates’ - No longer ‘humans’ as homogenous link in the ‘great chain of being’. Humans too are heirachically arranged and old ‘classes’ are subdivided
- However women are divided socio-economically
EXAMPLES AS WOMEN AS ‘FOURTH ESTATE’:
- De Eruditione Praedicatorum with different sections for women and sub-categories of women from nobility to whores
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Women and education
- Women denied an education, “only the upper class took the veil” (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages, 5)
- Some education in the nunnery. Neccesary reading and writing to copy manuscripts and to read religious texts ie lives of the saints and rules of the order (50)
- ^ Esp true of Cictercian nunneries in La Ramee and Nazareth
- By high Middle Ages, monasteries less important than Cathedral Schools and Universities
- Hildegard of Bingen well educated (51)
- Noblewomens’ education was encouraged. Women more generally should be educated so they can engage with Xn teachings. Desire to educate women for “subject specific roles” was far rarer. (154)
- Christine de Pisan argues women are capable of reason and there is a place for them in the courts, and is bitter that she was not herself educated (155)
- Pierre Dubois planned to give women a full education to send them out to act in the Holy Land, and also to marry and convert local Saracens. As doctors, they could treat (and convert) Muslim women (157)
- In PRACTICE, education was “elementary” but so was the noblemans who was “not distinguished by his educational level” (157)
- For peasants, as men lacked education too they weren’t relatively disadvantaged as noblewomen were (248)
Women in medieval literature
- Contrast between literary representation and reality:
- In Greek Tragedy, mysoginistic plays produced powerful heroines, when in reality women were inferior (6, F.L. Lucas)
- Urban literature was “satirical” and so, when read closely, can reveal more truth
- Bernard Silvestris, About the Universe, is dominated by the “‘Great Mother’” figure but did not either “affect or reflect reality (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages, 7)
- Underrepresentation of women as authors in this period. (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages, 8 )
How did women exercise authority in this period?
- In entering a convent, women were free of domination by men. Shahar suggests this was a motive, (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages,8) but it was also a way for men to discard women who were troubling them?
- As an abbess, she had some feudal responsibilites
- In law, she could act with her husband’s consent
Women in heretical movements
- Joined for liberation from male domination and could exercise more authority than in the Catholic church (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages,9 )
Were women represented in government
- Excluded from government completely, as domestic responsiblities were more important and they weren’t considered able (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages,11 )
- Denied rights for “limited intelligence…light mindedness…wiliness and avarice.” (“”)
- Also true of municipal assemblies
- Peeress could let husband or son sit in Lords but not do it herself (12)
- No civil rights, but had to pay civic taxes. Paid by husband unless women had commercial role (13)
Were women represented in the feudal system?
- Sometimes, yes
- Could inherit fief, and could perform in office attached to fief ie an abbess and the estate of the abbey (Shahar, S. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages, 12)
- Could manage a fief on behalf of a minor, in the absence of a husband
- In England, once married a woman’s husband did homage, and her vassals did homage to him
