Margaret L. King’s “Women of the Renaissance” Book Review
Kendall, Matthew R.
History 430
1/22/2014
Margaret L. King’s “Women of the Renaissance” Book Review
Chapters 2 & 3 Margaret L. King uses irony and survival of circumstance to explain how the lives of women change and evolve but not through recognition by those who continue to see women as less than the men. This conclusion can be seen in the final chapters of Margaret’s book compared with the first chapter, which deals with women’s effect, or role, in society and how it changes them, while no change occurs in their standing or role in that of the nuclear family. Margaret’s major argument throughout the final chapters of the book seem to be that by limiting education and one sided interpretations of religious scriptures, when used as the basis by which men has held dominance over the lives of women, they in fact encouraged the opposite without their knowledge or fore thought. Resistance to any sort of female progression by men, was due to the simple fact that men did not want to share the power that they already had to compete for among themselves and through their ignorance, Margaret implies that education is and was the solution to the incarceration of the woman within society as well as their tool for growth and change.
Ignorance was vital to impose authority over individuals who if given the same opportunity could achieve equal or greater potential than that of their counter parts. This argument could be applied to any social group living during the period that today we refer to as the Renaissance but Margaret’s argument, in chapters 2 and 3, is focused on the women from upper middle class to that of women with ruling power. Margaret does make reference to that of the lower working class, but mass ignorance or lack of any historical evidence may be the reasoning behind the focus of her argument being based on the individuals of greater living standard than most, which was roughly a fourth or less of the European population.
Margaret’s writings do
History 430
1/22/2014
Margaret L. King’s “Women of the Renaissance” Book Review
Chapters 2 & 3 Margaret L. King uses irony and survival of circumstance to explain how the lives of women change and evolve but not through recognition by those who continue to see women as less than the men. This conclusion can be seen in the final chapters of Margaret’s book compared with the first chapter, which deals with women’s effect, or role, in society and how it changes them, while no change occurs in their standing or role in that of the nuclear family. Margaret’s major argument throughout the final chapters of the book seem to be that by limiting education and one sided interpretations of religious scriptures, when used as the basis by which men has held dominance over the lives of women, they in fact encouraged the opposite without their knowledge or fore thought. Resistance to any sort of female progression by men, was due to the simple fact that men did not want to share the power that they already had to compete for among themselves and through their ignorance, Margaret implies that education is and was the solution to the incarceration of the woman within society as well as their tool for growth and change.
Ignorance was vital to impose authority over individuals who if given the same opportunity could achieve equal or greater potential than that of their counter parts. This argument could be applied to any social group living during the period that today we refer to as the Renaissance but Margaret’s argument, in chapters 2 and 3, is focused on the women from upper middle class to that of women with ruling power. Margaret does make reference to that of the lower working class, but mass ignorance or lack of any historical evidence may be the reasoning behind the focus of her argument being based on the individuals of greater living standard than most, which was roughly a fourth or less of the European population.
Margaret’s writings do