Keith Tyler

Medieval Europe

Final

During the period known as the Middle Ages can be found the roots of many of the traditional perspectives towards women. Though modern political attitudes have pushed most of these views into decline, they are still apparent in today's culture. Much of this atmosphere towards women placed them at a lower political and/or intellectual status than the men, leaving little avenues for individual women to rise to historical significance. But while today's women view many parts of this archaic attitude with scorn, not all of the medieval thoughts on women were contemptful. Furthermore, there were areas of medieval culture where women could find independent lives which resembled that common to the men, and showed that women could rise to similar ability.

In the common peasant household, women were the most important part of the household. It was the work of the wife to maintain the home while the husband worked in the field. Her duties included preparing food for the family, watching after the children, and tending the animals. Often this work was aggravating, as there were many things to look after at once. Although men's work in the field may have been more physical, it does not seem as complicated. Even so, during harvest, women would also aid in the work in the field.

Marriage between men and women was normally arranged. Weddings were contracts not only between the man and the woman, who may or may not have known each other ahead of time, but between their families. A marriage was not based on the couple's love but on their faith. Young marriage was endorsed by the Church to keep youth out of trouble.

Though this seems to affect both men and women, daughters more than sons are seen as instruments in achieving family strength. Parents design their daughters specifically to get them married. Of course, heredity went to sons, and then to brothers, before it went to daughters. Fathers would try to get their daughters wedded, or instead ship them off to a convent. Women were also often married to older men, leading to a feeling of paternal superiority of the husband over the wife.

Among the higher classes, although they do no grunt work as in the peasant class, the woman of the manor is responsible for the same areas. Instead of a manual laborer, she is more of a supervisor over the peculiarities of the household. She oversees the staff, makes sure the house is stocked, is largely in charge of decoration, and especially makes preparations for parties and guests.

The men however are dominant in the marriage. Often the husbands make rules for their wives to follow. There are expectation of the women beyond the chores of the household. Women are expected to dress in a way that is desirous to their husbands. The importance of personal honor of the husband among men is projected onto the manner and appearance of their wives. An independent wife would be seen as a lack of strength on the part of the man. It was expected therefore, for men to ensure their wives live up to their husband's expectations. To this end, wife beating was endorsed by law.

However, though they may not be flattering, many rules were in place which were intended to protect women. Even in the early medieval period, large fines were charged for crimes against women. The Salic Law of the Franks includes penalties on men for kidnapping, rape, adultery, and even physical contact with women. Similar provisions to protect women are found five centuries later in the laws of Worms. In the later middle ages, laws begin to form which protect women in possession and liberty. Though they have no real political power, they do seem to have a benefit in protection by the law.

The development of the code of courtly love and that of chivalry brought social protections for women based around the sense of honor. Courtly love established the definitions of respect for one who is admired. Women were exalted under this code in respect for their beauty, or perhaps delicateness. Chivalry added to this honor with its rules of conduct for knights. Combatants competed for the honor and favor of their ladies. As in the laws protecting women, the code of chivalry suggested that the paramount purpose of defense was the protection of the kingdom's women.

But the adoration of women, and attempts to provide physical protection for them, did not lead to a fair recognition of their rights as free people. In a sense, they could be seen as a commodity. The arranged marriages mentioned before were sometimes designed as a trade, of a pleasant wife in exchange for good favors or better relations of a higher class, thus improving the girl's family's honor or status. Women may also be prizes of war, collected with the capture of a castle or kingdom.

There were, however, circumstances under which women could enjoy a sense of status and/or independence, and often proved, perhaps inadvertently, their equal abilities to men. Already, aristocratic women had customarily taken over the responsibilities of their husband lords, while the men were away on service to the king - meanwhile still in charge of all the other niceties of the manor house. This was only temporary authority, and brought little appreciation until the modern interest in finding evidence of women in history.

A popular escape (or for some, a prison) for women was the cloistered life. Not only did the convent generally offer physical protection by shutting out the outside world, nuns lived a life away from the society of men. The only man that a nun would need to deal with would be the bishop, who only visited on administrative missions, or perhaps courtesy calls. The convent itself and all its workings was controlled, administrated, and worked by women. Granting the limitations on personal freedom that come with cloistered life, women in the convent were in a sense free from the male forces that tried to control them.

Within the convent, women could rise to positions of relative power. Cloistered office was the only sort of office a woman could hold. The convent was run by an abbess or prioress, and there were subordinate supervisors at different levels of cloistered activity. The only check to the abbess's authority was the bishop, who would regularly visit to hear complaints from the nuns and instruct the abbess to make appropriate changes. But the bishop's and abbess's control over the women of the convent was not always effective. In these societies of women, sometimes social codes came about in which the nuns would agree to protect each other from punishment for breaking the sisterly rules. Living among other women, away from the pressures of men, could provide women an even greater sense of freedom.

Women were also able to rise above the traditional expectations with the rise of towns. In town life, marriage was generally free from the contract nature of the feudal world, and became more of a partnership between a man and woman. With the spreading of markets in the late middle ages, not only in towns but also in some of the country side, women could stand to make money or their own through the sale of surplus material, or through outright production of goods. In the towns, women would help in their husband's shop, and would learn skills not normally passed on to a woman in the feudal world. A married woman could even obtain financial independence through the courts. Women are now recognized as being leaders in the textile industries.

This did not mean a fully equal status for women. Women would not be found in the halls of universities, for example, or in public secular or religious office. Although women could and did show that they were capable of filling the roles traditionally accorded to men, it was of course not always met with applause. Joan of Arc proved that she could surpass the abilities of men on the battlefield, but her success brought her scorn, disbelief, and led to her being burned at the stake.

During the middle ages, women did not enjoy the same rights, freedoms, or room for advancement as men in their class. The status of women was defined by the status of their husbands or fathers, and in turn, they were expected to fit into roles which would ensure the honor of their men. Although laws were made intended to protect women, this protection was the result of their being seen as defenseless. Women were in a sense the most important group to the medieval mind, and as a result this preciousness prevented them from having the same freedoms as men. Although women could find environments where they could have a sense of independence, freedom, and importance, these were either not meaningful to Western society or met with shock and disdain.

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