Women’ s Roles in Power From Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages
Women’ s Roles in Power From Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages
The picture that comes to mind when painting the role of women a thousand years ago is a bleak image of women being bound to the home, and a slave to back breaking labor around the house while producing as many children as possible, with no hope or possibility of a more complex role in society. However, and refreshingly, this was not the sole place for a woman from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages.
While peasants, men and women alike, would have been bound to a life similar to the one described above, peasant women could be the head of the family when their husband passed, and possess money in their name. More impressively, women in positions of power “owned land, led battles, decided disputes, and entered into and broke political alliances at their advantage and dictated.” (Rosenwein, 240). While it is commonly known of just a few women who were lucky enough to lead lives such as this, more were blessed with these roles than usually assumed. What leads most to picture the huge minority role for women is actually the societies that developed after the Middle Ages. A thousand years ago, while taken on individual scales, societies seemed complex compared to the primitive world they were developing out of. However, as the world continued to develop, more and more rules were added to cultures and as lifestyles got more “posh” and established throughout the world, women became more of an object than a people with capabilities. While, with the exception of a few matriarchal societies around the world throughout history, men were predominantly the ones who held power, owned property, made the laws and lead, many women did as well but became more and more suppressed as time went on. Despite this, women still either made or highly influenced crucial decisions supposedly made by men because they were the closest to them- they were the wives of powerful men. The power of the position of wife
The picture that comes to mind when painting the role of women a thousand years ago is a bleak image of women being bound to the home, and a slave to back breaking labor around the house while producing as many children as possible, with no hope or possibility of a more complex role in society. However, and refreshingly, this was not the sole place for a woman from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages.
While peasants, men and women alike, would have been bound to a life similar to the one described above, peasant women could be the head of the family when their husband passed, and possess money in their name. More impressively, women in positions of power “owned land, led battles, decided disputes, and entered into and broke political alliances at their advantage and dictated.” (Rosenwein, 240). While it is commonly known of just a few women who were lucky enough to lead lives such as this, more were blessed with these roles than usually assumed. What leads most to picture the huge minority role for women is actually the societies that developed after the Middle Ages. A thousand years ago, while taken on individual scales, societies seemed complex compared to the primitive world they were developing out of. However, as the world continued to develop, more and more rules were added to cultures and as lifestyles got more “posh” and established throughout the world, women became more of an object than a people with capabilities. While, with the exception of a few matriarchal societies around the world throughout history, men were predominantly the ones who held power, owned property, made the laws and lead, many women did as well but became more and more suppressed as time went on. Despite this, women still either made or highly influenced crucial decisions supposedly made by men because they were the closest to them- they were the wives of powerful men. The power of the position of wife
Bibliography: Rosenwein, Barbara H. 2009. A short history of the Middle Ages. Toronto, Ont: University of Toronto Press, chapters 3, 5, 7 8 and pages 126, 195, 240, 283, 306, and 326. Andrea, Alfred J. 1997. The medieval record: sources of medieval history. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, chapters 2, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13pages 127, 108, 203-206, 365, 389, 410, 435, 440, 467 Middle Ages Women. (n.d.) Life in the Middle Ages. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from http://www.lordsandladies.org/life-in-the-middle-ages.htm