Gender Role, Subject & Power

Raoudah Samir

Professor Caçoilo

Art & Women

3 March 2019

Gender Role, Subject & Power

In accordance to the Bible, because Eve, who was created from Adam’s rib had eaten from the forbidden tree, she was deemed responsible for mankind’s expulsion from paradise. Thus, making it a popular belief during the Middle Ages that women were inferior to men, and that women needed to be “shielded” from society because they were morally weaker and more likely vulnerable to influence neb to committing sin. This made women confined to a life where home and family were their main priorities in life. Women during the Middle Ages were “virtual prisoners of the men in their lives” (Guerrilla Girls, 19).

The majority of people during the Middle Ages lived in small rural communities, making their means from the land. Although women were viewed as fragile, less intelligent, and unfit than men for most jobs, they did maintain quite a consequential amount of control amongst the family. Depending on social status, a woman’s tasks varied in medieval Europe. Luckily though, some women were able to balance the position of both mother and wife along with an outside occupation. Less fortunate medieval women had domestic duties such as preparing meals and tending to children and livestock. During the harvest, the busiest time of the year, women often assisted their husbands and fathers in the fields to raise crops. Women also joined cottage industries and contributed by brewing beer and wine, and manufacturing textiles, and baking. Some women simply worked occupations such as spinning flax and wool, embroidery and weaving in order to stay close to home so that they do not neglect other duties. According to Chadwick, during the 11th and 12th century, large numbers of women were encouraged to take up religious lives (page, 53). 

Many women wanted to escape the burden of responsibilities and the harsh patriarchal treatment and one option that medieval women had was to “marry the church” or “take the veil”. In other words, become a nun. This meant that women were to live in a convent and devote their lives to contemplation, prayer, and work. It also meant that women could not bear children or be married. Although this lifestyle may not be too appealing to a modern day woman today, it was gold to a medieval woman. The lifestyle of a nun spared a women from the dangers of childbirth and allowed women to acquire academic knowledge, which was not common amongst women, even who have high social status. In the portrait below, Collection of Moral Tracts, c. 1290, illustrates how nuns were centered around prayers eight times a day. It also portrays the nuns attending mass. (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/drawing-of-nuns-at-a-procession-to-mass-from-a-collection-of-moral-tracts).

In comparison to the middle ages, the Renaissance granted women more opportunity. In regards to roles, they were still very similar to the middle ages. Women were still expected to engage in the tasks of the household, sewing,and cooking. Despite all of this, “one of the ways a woman can work as an artist was to be born within a family of artists that needed assistance in the family workshop” (Guerrilla Girls, 29). Women who were born into a family of artists were able to be educated which was a big improvement compared to the middle ages, where only nuns can acquire an education.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.

https://www.bl.uk/the-middle-ages/articles/women-in-medieval-society