Women's Role in European Society

Throughout history, societal expectations for women were extremely limiting and demeaning. Emphasizing the way in which a girl could only serve to be subservient to a man, intellectual women were deemed rare and exceptions to their gender. Rather than admitting to the knowledge they possessed, any sort of talent they had was either seen as incompetent or was attributed to the men in their lives. Furthermore, women who were even allowed to study art came from a considerable amount of wealth. Privileged enough to have supportive fathers who were artists themselves, the exclusivity of becoming an artist is significant to acknowledge. Navigating such difficult spheres, the slow progression of women into more male-dominated spaces came through the rise in the fight for human rights across the world. No longer willing to accept the circumstances through which they were born in, the role of women slowly traversed from one of extreme inferiority into a space where women used art as a political playground to reveal the social restrictions they had to confront.

During the Middle Ages, women were still primarily seen as possessions whose sole use lied in marrying off and bearing children. The sole mechanism of escaping such constricting ideals was to become a nun. Choosing to seclude themselves in order to learn and gain the ability to grow knowledgeable, women often took holy orders to do so they would be given access to things that were otherwise permissible to them. Since they had to learn how to read the Bible and interpret it in order to fulfill this chosen career, women were given access to all that they could desire. Given the fact that they were largely supported by other women in these sacred spaces, converting was very much desirable. Hildegard of Bingen's Scivas, is evidence of the opposition of such patriarchal structures. In societies "that deny 'subjectivity' to women, the mystical experience is the one that dissolves the subject/object opposition, and the one area of highly spiritual endeavor in which women have excelled" (Chadwick 59). In other words, seeing as women were not permitted to be intellectual, by attributing what they write as coming from God, the messages nuns share are not that of a woman. They are denied their power, and rather, are seen as weak vessels through which the word of God transmits. The image below depicts these exact circumstances. Living in a world that was so limiting, Hildegard even saw herself as merely a receptor for God's message, nothing more. The culmination of the patriarchal messages ever present in her work, she saw women as merely complementary to men and minimized the power and knowledge she possessed (Chadwick 59).

Hildegard of Bingen's Scivas c. 1142-1152. Here, the viewer sees her receiving a vision from God and then going on to transcribe it and hand off the message to the monk. It's interesting to see the way in which a man receives orders from her. In a way, this shows the power that she never recognized in herself.

Journeying into the Renaissance, the rise of humanism made some believe that equality for women was very much possible, and yet the idea that females that could read or write would be dangerous was a prevalent idea (Guerrilla Girls 31). Still under the surveil of any man present in her life, women artists where only permitted to do what their fathers allowed them to. Oppressive and dangerous structures were still very much prominent during this period, and the same nonchalance towards rape that is present today existed long ago. Take the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, a young girl with a passion for painting that was subjected to sexual harassment by one of her father's studio assistants. Instead of being able to seek solace in her family, revealing what had happened to her left her with limited options. In an effort to get away with his actions, her rapist was willing to marry her, and the only thing society cared about was who took away the "purity" of a woman. Eventually he was imprisoned for his actions, but was later able to regain his title and work with her father as if nothing happened. As a result of such circumstances, Artemisia Gentileschi worked on Judith Slaying Holofernes. Depicting the story of a fierce, young woman "who kills an Assyrian general, an enemy of her people, by pretending to seduce him," the painting embodies everything she is (Guerrilla Girls 37). Taking autonomy and owning all that she can do, this piece of art emphasizes the actual killing as a bloody experience, only further proving that women could be just as violent as men. Unafraid to confront death, her painting pushes against the stereotype that women could merely be delicate and dainty.

Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1618 . Unlike other depictions of this story,  where women looked away from the act of killing (almost to say that they could not handle it), this version shows then confronting the bloody act with no fear.

In the 19th century, the commencement of the Impressionist movement and the creation of the camera revolutionized the art world. Since cameras could now accurately depict images, painting sought to do something different. In the shift from realistic images to ones that were characterized by small strokes. Paintings began to depict fleeting moments, and were thus labelled as unfinished pieces during that time period. Art from the late 1800s emphasized "more of a relationship between the painter's daily life and his or her studio life; this aspect of impressionism deserves more study for it profoundly shaped women's relationship to the movement" (Chadwick 232). Thus, as the subject matter of domestic life was one in which women had experience in, the insurgence of women painters especially grew. Nonetheless, this is not to say that this completely opened doors for girls. Even in circumstances where women had more access to what was painted, they were still restrained from studios and cafes where men were free to roam. Women's art therefore began to reflect the social restrictions that were placed on their gender. Mary Cassatt's Woman in Black at the Opera, showed a women alone in public, something that was extremely rare at the time. Rather than being on stage as the entertainment, as men thought was suitable for the opposite sex, the woman in the image is watching the opera. Nevertheless, as she actively looks at the performance, there is a man in the back who watches her with astonishment. Even when she wears all black to be invisible to those around her, she cannot avoid being watched by men. Thus, even as the world began to progress into one where women would eventually be able to vote in the United States, the same societal structures were present. Women's role in the world was one of submission, one where they were objects, and one in which acting outside of the feminine norms was seen as dangerous to society.

Mary Cassatt, Women in Black at the Opera - look in the upper left hand corner. Here, you can clearly see the male gaze in action as he watches the young girl who is by herself at the opera. 

Overall, the role of women is still similar in today's world. While things like the Me Too movement are starting conversations that were never before told, the pushback against such actions is felt. Feminism is fought against by people who feel like any rhetoric that supports women demeans men, even though this could not be further than the truth. Things like the gender wage gap, is evidence of the lack of value women have in society. So while there has been progress for girls, there is still much work to be done before equality is even possible.

Work Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 5th ed. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2016

The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006