A woman’s place during the Renaissance and Reformation.
During the Renaissance period a woman was considered master of the domestic sphere. The ideal woman was refined and pious. Her lord was the center of her world. It was a commonly held belief that women had stronger sexual appetites and were more emotional than men. Consequently, a woman’s place was in the home where she could be protected from herself. Social morals, more so than laws, assured that a woman would remain in her place. There were a few women that did not accept this subordinate role. They took an interest in politics and proved to be great leaders. However, respect and equal opportunies did not come easy.
Born in 1519, Catherine de Medici became the wife of Henri II of France. She had little power while her husband was king, however, when he was killed during a tournament she took over as regent of France. She was reviled as a tyrant for it was her machinations that balanced the three strong factions of France at the time. She was determined to preserve royal power, this entailed keeping a balance between the Huguenots and the Roman Catholics. Catherine arranged influential marriages for her daughters. She, like most of her family, was a patron of the arts. She is held responsible for bringing culture to France including ballet, fine cooking and table manners. Later, when her son Charles XI came to power, she stayed on as his chief advisor. When her last son, Henry III, came to power, her power declined. Catherine died on January 5,1589.
The child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizibeth was born in 1533. She was declared illegitimate after her mother’s demise in favor of her half-sister Mary. Elizabeth spent her childhood away at school until her father's sixth wife took Elizabeth back to the court. She had no part in politics during her brother Edward's rule, but took an interest when her sister Mary gained control of the throne. When Mary died in 1588, Elizabeth became queen. At this time, England was in a state of religious strife and economic despair, as well as being involved in a war with France. She had an abundance of skill in diplomacy which made her a very popular leader. She was very good for England's economy and industry and thus restored public faith in the monarchy. Her reign is lauded as the Renaissance of England. Elizabeth died in 1603 and, even though the end of her reign was not very successful, she will always be remembered for the improvements she made in England. During her reign, figures such as Shakespeare, Bacon and Walter Raleigh inhabited the English court.
A woman’s place during the Age of Revolutions
During the colonial period, which preceded the Age of Revolutions, a women’s sphere of influence widened somewhat, mostly out of pure necessity. In the colonies there simply were not the resources for a woman to stay in the home and so many women were forced to make a living. Women in the country worked on the farms beside their husbands. In the cities, women worked in multiple menial positions such as dress makers, or gardeners. During the American Revolution, women helped out in many capacities such as treating the wounded and maintaining arms.
Born Abigail Smith, in 1744, Abigail spent much of her childhood in her grandparents' home. She was married in 1764 to a young Boston lawyer named John Adams. They spent most of there marriage years apart; this separation evoked a famous correspondence between the two. She was a witty, lighthearted woman, who was considerably pro aggressive for her time. In a famous letter written to her husband in 1776, she warned him to "Remember the ladies, and be more favorable to them than your ancestors were. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands... If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation." She was considered her husband's equal in intelligence as well as diplomacy. She was a strong advocator in the equal rights of education for women.
This English author and feminist was born in 1759. She started working as a school teacher, but after the success of her first book, Mary, a Fiction, she decided to become a reader and translator in London. The next book that was written by Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, is her best known work. The book states that the purpose of marriage is for intellectual companionship. The other issues the book addresses is equality of education and opportunity for both sexes. She also wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Man in 1793.
With the advent of the liberalism project, society was beginning to rethink ever so slightly its views about women. Radical ideas such as women’s suffrage were slowly spreading across the continent. During the early part of this period, women’s suffrage came into conflict with the conservative elements in the British Parliament. The outbreak of World War I gave the women’s movement the final push it needed to gain suffrage in England. Unfortunately, it will be many years before women in the rest of Europe gain this right.
The resolution states: "The employment of women in great industrial workshops is one of the most shocking abuses of our age. It places the working population in a wretched condition through the destruction of the family." This reflects the prevalent attitudes of the time. A majority of the people still thought that women should stay at home and take care of the house and family.
The SPD's official position on women working outside the home was that more women could enter the workforce. By doing this, they tried to eliminate cheap female labor. Trade unions still remained hostile toward the working women. The laws could change faster than the attitudes of the people.
This influential woman was born in Saxony in 1857. Zetkin was a major voice in the progression of women's rights in Germany. She became the editor of the social democratic women's periodical Die Gleichheit in 1892. Zetkin headed the International Women't Secretariat of Second International from 1907 and was the instigator of the International Women's Day. The International Women's Day was first celebrated in 1911 and still continues today.
Herbert Asquith, the British Prime Minister of the time, has just blocked women’s suffrage legislation. As a response to this, the feminist movement begins to take out its frustration in the form of angry protests and rallies. Many of which end in police being called in and multiple arrests being made. This finally ends in 1918 with a women’s suffrage bill.
1920s
At this time Germany had more women in parliament than the United States or any other Western country. However, under the Weimer system, they were prevented from acting independantly. Progressive legislation was passed concerning things such as divorce and abortion reform, but this was mostly to gain support for the party. This was disappointing to the women because political equality did not mean much without economic equality.
The period just before and after the outbreak of World War II was one of the most radical as far as a woman’s changing place in society. At the beginning of the war women could not vote in many European countries. By the end of this war, women could vote in all democratic European countries. By the end of this period, the term "woman’s issues" will be used in political discussions, and a woman’s sphere of influence will extend theoretically to the same extents as a man. Unfortunately actual equality is still a long way off.
The Communist Ideal that men and women are equal allows women to serve in the Russian army. Women serve in front line combat positions as snipers and bombers. German soldiers lived in fear of these women soldiers they referred to as Nachthexen or night witches.
With many working men off fighting the war, many women were called to work outside the home. There was a great demand for able-bodied workers, and women were the natural choice. Advertising campaigns such as Rosie the Riveter helped to legitimize the idea of a "working mom".
The Post-War Era and the Modern Age
In the aftermath of World War II the woman once again became director of the domestic sphere. The ideal of the perfect nuclear family; the working father, stay-at-home mother and children, became the accepted way of life. With the social ferment of the sixties women started to become more radical in their positions and a feminist revival of the sixties and seventies followed. By the eighties, feminism had divided into two camps: one that was convinced of the inherent superiority of women, and one that embraced the differences of men and women and saw them as complementary.
Born in 1908, Simone de Beauvior became a leader of the French feminist movement. She was a French author and existentialist. Her book The Second Sex is a classic in feminist literature. It describes women as the sexual property of men. She also wrote articles focusing on the social, cultural, and political problems of her time.
Amid great political strife of India during the 60s and 70s, Indira Ghandi emerged as a strong leader. She established Indian hegemony in Southeast Asia and helped to establish India as a world power. She was born in Allahbad, India in 1917. In 1955 she was elected to congress and became Prime Minister. In 1984 she was assassinated by Sikh rebels.
Margaret Thatcher is the longest serving British Prime Minister of the nineteenth century. She is famous for overcoming the good-old-boy situation in her conservative party. She single handedly crushed the ineffecent state run industry in England at the time and organized England’s government. Margaret was born in 1925 to an English grocer. She earned a chemistry degree from Oxford, and in 1979 became the Prime Minister of England. She stayed in that position until her resignation in 1990.
(http://armey.house.gov/thatcher.htm)