Changes in the Role of Women

Changes in the Role of Women

Introduction

It has been discovered by the modern historians that medieval women played an integral role and made important contributions to the economy by the end of the middle ages. It is very evident and quite certain to say that in retrospect women were either taken for granted or ignored by men. Certainly neither does romantic nor does religious literature provide an accurate accounting of the roles and activities of the real middle ages women. However many studies and researchers have confirmed that the role of the medieval women changed between the mid of the 11th century and the mid of the 12th century. It has been said that women during this era were treated like goddesses, in comparison to how there were treated before. Women played a prominent role in the medieval society, despite the fact that their economic efforts were influenced by their marital status, vicinity or where they resided and social class.

Discussion

Roles of Women before the High Middle Ages

In earlier days of middle changes normative woman's life was divided into three phases that were associated with specific and clear roles for instance the time as a young girl she would be considered capable only for marriage or a virgin lady, or as a wife and a mother or in worst scenarios as a widow. During the youth and the first stage of life, the women were under the tutelage of their father, who was responsible for their behaviour and for their actions. In court, he represented them as a woman could not appear in the court usually because they had no legal capacity. In the second phase of life her husband would bear the responsibility for it this. The time spent by women in the house was devoted to preparing for their future lives as wives and mothers.

Then, when the moment of the wedding came they were married. It is difficult to say at what age was considered to be suitable for marriage. In nobility daughters were sometimes married at a very early age or at childhood for example Isabelle, daughter of the French king Charles VI was married at the age of just six years, to the widowed King of England, Richard II. In many conditions it was also witnessed that at times their marriage would take place in the ages of 20's but the husbands would be much older. In those days' women at the age of 14 years was considered an adult and therefore as marriageable and people in marriages were entered into not for love, but for pragmatic reasons such as dowry, a professional increase, or simply the union of two families. The woman was responsible for the care of the interior, raising children and cooking, but also they had to possibly help her husband at work on the field or in the workshop.

Often there was a significant age difference between spouses, as men were considered to be eligible for marriage if they were financially ...