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Women

Women clearly played a secondary role in the political, social, and cultural life of the Renaissance. Since the Middle Ages, the major institutions of society—the family, the church, and the state—had placed restrictions on women's roles within them. However, these rigid limits began to relax in some ways during the Renaissance. Women found opportunities to take part in the widespread revival of art and scholarship. They also became more prominently involved in social protest. As a result, women's views of themselves began to change during this period. A small but significant group of women drew attention to their unequal state and called for changes in the way society treated them.

WOMEN AND THE FAMILY

In Renaissance society men were identified by their occupation or social status—as gentlemen, merchants, priests, peasants, and so forth. Women's identity, by contrast, depended on their relationships to men, as daughters, wives, mothers, or widows. The father served as the head of the Renaissance family, and property was passed down through the male line. Women played a supporting role within the family.

A daughter's most important duty was to preserve her virginity. Because identity and inheritance depended on fathers rather than mothers, a man had to know that his future wife had not conceived a child by another man before her marriage. Daughters also had to learn the skills they would one day need as wives and mothers. The older women of the household taught the girls to spin wool and weave cloth. They also showed them to manage the household economy, supervise servants, and nurse the sick.

Wives had many duties in the household, which varied according to their social status. Peasant women performed such tasks as tending to fowl and sheep, raising vegetables, brewing beer, and helping with the harvest. The wives of artisans* performed skilled craft work alongside their husbands. Occasionally they gained membership in guilds*, although this became less common over the course of the Renaissance. Wives of merchants tended shops and helped keep accounts and other records. The chief job of upper-class wives was to run the household. They managed the purchasing of supplies, entertained their husbands' guests, and nursed sick family members and servants. They also did fine embroidery and other textile work for the home.

The chief responsibility of all wives, however, was bearing and raising children. Childbirth was risky for both infant and mother. Between 20 and 50 percent of infants died soon after birth. One in ten births resulted in the death of the mother, making childbirth a leading cause of death among women—especially those who had many children. Mothers were responsible for their children until they reached the age of six or seven, but society did not see children as belonging to their mothers. If a mother of young children died, the father and his family or servants raised the children. However, if a father of young children died, his male relatives became responsible for the children—although they might invite the mother to remain in the household to care for them.

Widowhood posed practical problems for a woman of any age. A woman whose husband died often found herself surrounded by competing interests. Her husband's family members might want her to stay in their household so that they would have the use of her dowry*. The members of her birth family, by contrast, might want her to return to her former home, along with her dowry. They might also urge her to remarry. The church and society in general worried that sexually experienced widows would behave immorally. In Catholic regions they would be urged to enter convents, in Protestant ones to remarry. Few believed that a widow could or should live alone, even if she could support herself. After 1600, however, it became more common for women to do so.

WOMEN AND THE CHURCH

The role of women in religion differed significantly between the Roman Catholic Church and the various Protestant churches. Catholic women could pursue a career in the church by entering a convent, where they would live apart from the world. A Protestant woman, by contrast, had little choice but to spend her life within the family, under the control of male relatives. Catholic women might join a RELIGIOUS ORDER for many reasons. Some families placed their young daughters in convents on a permanent or temporary basis. Some grown women joined convents because they were drawn to the religious life, while others were widows or refugees seeking a haven.

Convents typically required an entrance fee, which they called a dowry, just as in a marriage. Those whose families could not afford this fee might join looser communities of religious women who did not live strictly apart from the world. A few women pursued holy careers as individuals, following a strict religious routine while remaining in the homes of male relatives. Others, usually wives and widows, devoted themselves to God through charity work. After the early 1500s, however, the Catholic Church severely limited these less structured forms of female religious life. The convent became the only approved religious path for a woman, and life within convents came under tighter control by male clergy.

Protestantism did away with the Catholic ideal of holy virginity and with religious communities for women. Protestant women had to live out their lives within the families of their fathers or husbands. Some modern historians see this as a change that placed women more firmly under male control, while others view it as a shift toward more equal marriages. In the earliest days of Protestantism, some women became religious leaders, publishing their views on reform. However, their voices had little lasting impact on the movement. Later, some women in minor Protestant groups such as the Anabaptists became famous as martyrs* for their faith.

WOMEN AND RENAISSANCE CULTURE

During the Renaissance, women began to play a larger role in the privileged world of power and ideas. Several women of this period governed their countries either as rulers or as regents*. Women also made inroads in other male domains, such as scholarship and the arts. Men often declared that women of notable learning or wisdom had "achieved the virtue of a man." Such remarks reveal that Renaissance society continued to view women as a group as inferior, even while acknowledging the accomplishments of a select few. Still, women's contributions to Renaissance culture helped lay the foundations for a new, more equal view of their abilities and rights.

Women of Power. Between 1400s and 1700 several bright and capable woman became rulers of their countries. ELIZABETH I of England, Christina of Sweden, and ISABELLA OF CASTILE all reigned as queens in their own right, while CATHERINE DE MÉDICIS and Anne of Austria acted as regents for their sons. These powerful women served as living proof that a woman could perform and even excel at male activities.

Female rulers often reinforced their power by surrounding themselves with images of armed women. The concept of the military maiden fascinated Renaissance artists and writers, appearing in the works of such authors as Edmund SPENSER and Ludovico ARIOSTO. Some Renaissance women actually served as soldiers by assuming male disguises. A few of them managed to keep their gender hidden for years.

Women as Scholars. Women had limited access to education during the Renaissance. Although no specific rule barred them from attending universities, the courses of study at these centers of learning were designed to prepare men for public and professional life. With the rise of humanist* education, however, other paths to knowledge became open to women. Some, for instance, gained access to learning through the culture of the Renaissance COURT. Female courtiers had the opportunity to talk with philosophers and scientists who came to the courts seeking patronage* for their projects.

Other women learned through private study. Some fathers, especially in northern Italy, educated their daughters in Latin and Greek, the foundations of humanist study. These vital language skills enabled a few Italian women of the 1400s to study philosophy. These early female humanists, such as Isotta Nogarola of Verona and Cassandra Fedele of Venice, produced letters, dialogues, poems, and other works. Many of their writings dealt with such issues as the mental abilities of women and their right to an education. Women also took part in learned debates through correspondence with male humanists.

Renaissance women were not very active in the sciences. A few, however, assisted their male relatives with scientific work. For example, Sophie Brahe, the sister of Danish astronomer Tycho BRAHE (1546–1601), helped him with his observations and took part in scientific discussions at the Danish court. Women did enjoy some independence in the field of medicine. Although without university degrees, they had little chance of practicing as physicians, many communities relied on female healers for their knowledge of herbs and other treatments. Some well-known healers, such as the French royal midwife Louise Bourgeois (1563–1636), published works that competed with those of male physicians. These women demonstrated that their hands-on experience could rival men's book learning about the human body.

Women in Art and Literature. The number of women writers grew enormously in the 1500s and 1600s. Italian humanism produced a dozen or so female writers, and by the end of the Renaissance there were hundreds and perhaps thousands of women writing in Italian, French, and English. Women penned religious poetry, love poetry, stories, novels, and plays. They also wrote diaries, family histories, and advice books for other women on topics such as cooking, fashion, child care, and herbal lore. A few women knew Latin and Greek and translated ancient works from these languages into the vernacular*.

Many female writers challenged the traditional view of women as physically and mentally inferior to men. For instance, in the early 1400s Christine de PIZAN of France proclaimed women's strength and envisioned a scholarly community for women. Two Venetian authors, Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella, published lengthy defenses of women in 1600. Their works attacked the idea of male superiority and laid the foundations for modern feminism. In the 1500s, female authors took part in the QUERELLE DES FEMMES, an ongoing debate about women's abilities and their proper place in society. This discussion, which continued beyond the end of the Renaissance, influenced later views on women's roles and rights.

A few women gained international fame as artists or musicians in the Renaissance. Two of the best known were Italian painters Artemisia GENTILESCHI and Sofonisba ANGUISSOLA. Wealthy women also contributed to the arts through patronage. Notable female patrons included CATHERINE OF ARAGON and MARGARET OF AUSTRIA. Some educated women became leaders of SALONS, circles of discussion among the learned and fashionable. Especially in France, but also in England, the Netherlands, and the Italian cities, salons helped spread new ideas and set standards of literary taste.

Images of Women. A few Renaissance artists portrayed women in ways that reflected the reality of the time. More often, however, women appeared in art as images of some abstract ideal—either good or bad. Some portraits flattered their subjects, such as the Italian artist TITIAN's painting of the 60-year-old noblewoman Isabella d'Este as a youthful beauty. Others placed women in mythical, historical, or religious settings. Whether the woman pictured was a saint or a temptress, a noble or a member of the working class, her image served as a model for female viewers, instructing them about morality and the right way to dress and behave.

Many works of art featured the Virgin Mary, who represented the ideal of Renaissance womanhood: chaste*, devout, humble, and motherly. Some pictures illustrated the events of Mary's life, while others presented her as an object of worship. Some artists glorified Mary, showing her surrounded by saints and angels. Others brought her down to earth, as in German artist Lucas CRANACH's 1519 woodcut* The Holy Kinship, which showed Mary in the company of her parents and extended family. These countless images of the Virgin Mary aimed to inspire Renaissance women and urge them to live up to her example.

Female saints also served as role models for women. Paintings that told the story of a saint's life often served an educational purpose, highlighting the themes of heroic virtue and self-sacrifice. Secular* paintings presented images of feminine perfection as well. Titian's La Bella (ca. 1536) reflected the concept of the ideal woman as described in works such as The Book of the Courtier, by Italian writer Baldassare CASTIGLIONE.

In other works, women appeared as temptresses. The chief such figure was the biblical Eve, often presented as the opposite of the Virgin Mary. In some pictures, Eve appeared with another troublesome female figure, such as Pandora, the character in Greek mythology who first brought human suffering into the world. The Large Power of Women, a series of woodcuts by Lucas van Leyden (ca. 1512) contained images of Eve and other women who brought trouble upon men. However, it is not always clear whether the artist meant these powerful women to be scorned as temptresses or admired as heroines.

WOMEN AND SOCIAL PROTEST

Throughout history women have taken part in protests against injustice or other social problems. The political and economic conditions of the Renaissance brought many occasions for female protest. The most common form of protest for women of the lower classes was the bread riot, which erupted when shortages of food threatened women's ability to feed their families. Many such riots occurred in the 1500s and 1600s, when wars and instability led to severe grain shortages. In some areas, such as France, these shortages were worsened by new taxes on salt and other items. Famous riots led by women broke out in the French cities of Lyon in 1529 and Bordeaux in 1643.

Female artisans and workers also rose up in labor-related protests. In the 1300s, for example, low-paid wool spinners rebelled against the merchants who controlled trade in England. In addition, women played visible roles in religious riots, such as the peasant uprisings in Germany in the 1500s and the outbursts of violence that accompanied wars between Catholics and Protestants in France.

Women fought with whatever weapons came to hand. In 1695 French women in the town of Berry threw rocks to protest a new tax on tradespeople. Female violence often involved household items such as kitchen knives, dishes, and pots. One female baker in Lisbon, Portugal, led a group of armed female "soldiers" wielding a pan as a weapon. In addition, female protestors made violent verbal threats and sometimes publicly humiliated male officials by attacking them physically.

Some of these female-centered protests gave rise to a sense of unity among women and to early claims of equal rights with men. During the English civil war of the mid-1600s, for example, women protested martial law* by declaring their "equal interest with the men of this Nation" in protecting their rights and freedoms. In general, however, women's protests did not involve serious calls for a change in women's state. The protesters' views about gender took a back seat to other goals and concerns. Still, the Renaissance brought new visibility to outraged women, who—armed with household weapons and a strong moral sense—united against the forces that threatened them.

(See also Childhood; Family and Kinship; Feminism; Humanism; Love and Marriage; Patronage; Queens and Queenship; Sexuality and Gender; Violence.)

See color plate 2, vol. 2

* artisan

skilled worker or craftsperson

* guild

association of craft and trade owners and workers that set standards for and represented the interests of its members

* dowry

money or property that a woman brings to her marriage

The Dowry

In many parts of Europe, a married woman could own no property except her dowry. Although technically her property for life, the dowry was managed by her husband during her lifetime and went to their children after his death. The dowry was a woman's inheritance. It served to cut her off from her birth family so that she would have no further claims on her father's estate. While families sought to limit the size of dowries to reduce their financial burden, they also tried to provide enough money to "purchase" desirable husbands for their daughters.

* martyr

someone who suffers or dies for the sake of a religion, cause, or principle

* regent

person who acts on behalf of a monarch who is too young or unable to rule

* humanist

referring to a Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living

* patronage

support or financial sponsorship

An Early Feminist

Laura Cereta (1469–1499) of Brescia, Italy, was one of the first female humanists. Widowed while still in her teens, Cereta devoted herself to writing essays in the form of letters to male scholars and leaders of the church and the state. Her works expressed ideas very unusual for the time. She rejected traditional views of men's and women's roles, argued that housework imposed limits on women's intellectual growth, and portrayed marriage as a kind of slavery. Cereta's bold writings had a strong influence on later feminists of the Renaissance and the centuries that followed.

* vernacular

native language or dialect of a region or country

See color plate 14, vol. 2

* chaste

sexually pure

* woodcut

print made from a block of wood with an image carved into it

* secular

nonreligious; connected with everyday life

* martial law

situation in which the government places law enforcement in the hands of the military, often involving some restrictions on citizens' rights