Perception and reality of women
Seminar 2: Women in Medieval Life
Questions and Issues:
What sort of different means of power and influence did women wield in the Middle Ages?
Medieval women faced some serious problems - a cultural rife with misogyny, a legal system based on assumptions of female inferiority, and a social structure that invested men with considerable power over women’s lives.
Class was the critical marker of differences among medieval women (according to Power).
Family connections - Eleanor of Aquitaine - able to communicate with one of the most powerful men of the time through these connections
Humbly addressing forces of power and influence
Maternal power - sons grow up automatically to listen to their mothers
Abasing Self
Relationships e.g. Eleanor married twice - both most important Kings in Europe (France and England)
Tempering sexuality and the fear of female flesh through maternal instincts
Secondary Reading: Women in Medieval English Society --> Mavis E. Mate
The material well-being of women was clearly determined by their social class. Housing, diet and clothing all varied significantly across the social scale. Although aristocratic women enjoyed fewer rights than their brothers, they had far greater access to education, property and political power than did any peasant women.
Power and influence not only depended on social class but also on the stage that a women had reached in her life-cycle. Daughters, whatever their rank in society, were legally under the control and authority of their fathers. Wives were also subjected to the power and authority of their husbands.
Examples of power and independence wielded by wealthy, aristocratic, widows cannot be extrapolated into a high status enjoyed by all women in that society or indeed for all women in that social class.
Power and influence thus depends on social class & whether the women were daughters, wives or widows.
What constitutes power and influence? Legal rights? Economic power? e.g.
Questions and Issues:
What sort of different means of power and influence did women wield in the Middle Ages?
Medieval women faced some serious problems - a cultural rife with misogyny, a legal system based on assumptions of female inferiority, and a social structure that invested men with considerable power over women’s lives.
Class was the critical marker of differences among medieval women (according to Power).
Family connections - Eleanor of Aquitaine - able to communicate with one of the most powerful men of the time through these connections
Humbly addressing forces of power and influence
Maternal power - sons grow up automatically to listen to their mothers
Abasing Self
Relationships e.g. Eleanor married twice - both most important Kings in Europe (France and England)
Tempering sexuality and the fear of female flesh through maternal instincts
Secondary Reading: Women in Medieval English Society --> Mavis E. Mate
The material well-being of women was clearly determined by their social class. Housing, diet and clothing all varied significantly across the social scale. Although aristocratic women enjoyed fewer rights than their brothers, they had far greater access to education, property and political power than did any peasant women.
Power and influence not only depended on social class but also on the stage that a women had reached in her life-cycle. Daughters, whatever their rank in society, were legally under the control and authority of their fathers. Wives were also subjected to the power and authority of their husbands.
Examples of power and independence wielded by wealthy, aristocratic, widows cannot be extrapolated into a high status enjoyed by all women in that society or indeed for all women in that social class.
Power and influence thus depends on social class & whether the women were daughters, wives or widows.
What constitutes power and influence? Legal rights? Economic power? e.g.