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03 January 2017

Women in medieval times and how their societal roles defined family dynamics

As is true to the history of western civilization, women were considered subservient to

men in the medieval times. The level of this subservience depended on the social category to

which the women belonged to. They were perceived as the weaker ones of the two sexes, less

intelligent, and less efficient than men. However, women did maintain a certain power and

significance in the family sphere of life even in those times. The role of women as child

bearer and nurturer was considered to be highly coveted and women were revered for their

capacity to maintain and raise a family. There was a very high inequality of wealth between

the people of Middle Ages with most of them being poor famers and menial job workers and

a very few people were rich, with affluence and means to afford servants. Although, women

of higher classes enjoyed better lives and had greater power from their counterparts of lower

classes of society, they were still perceived to be femme fatale and were not given credit for

their strength and hard work.

The middle ages in Europe is defined as a time of hardships, diseases and women

leading shackled lives. The lives of people during those times was fairly simple and the

societal structure was not intricately complex as it is today. Since that was a time before the

industrial revolution, a vast majority of the population used to live in the rural side and was

accustomed to the rustic way of living. Also, there was a very small minority of nobility and

religious people who lived a life of royalty and covenants respectively. The gender roles were

distinguishably demarcated for men and women. The role of women in the society was also
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very limited during these times. There were three broad categories of women based on their

upbringing or their social class in the Middle Ages, viz. the royals, the nuns and the

countrywomen. The royal women comprised of queens and princesses, while the nuns

belonged to the religious fraternity and the countrywomen were the rural female populace.

The roles of women were also governed by the categories that they belonged to. There was

also a very small minority of women engaged in science, arts and literature.

The roles of women in society were contracted and there was no scope for women to

diversify their lives. The Roman Catholic Church was the single largest unifying factor for

people in the middle ages and was also the cultural head of people’s activities. Patriarchy was

present in the power structure of the church with the role of being bishops, priesthood and

papacy being reserved solely for men. The general laws of marriage in those times as dictated

by church were vivid. In the event of death of the spouse the widow inherited his property

and she had higher power in comparison to adult sons of the family (Ranft 67). If the parents

were deceased and there were no male heirs in line, then the property would fall into the

hands of the daughter. When a woman having property got married, her possessions

essentially considered transferred to her husband. Irrespective of any category in which

women are put into, their roles had a very definitive ruling factor in those times and that was

of the Catholic Church (Ward 88). The papal aye was a necessity in those days to do anything

and everything, it was not only a system of organized religion which was directly in

contention with gender equality but was an ultimate power center around which the ideas of

morality were defined in medieval times.

As was common in those days, monogamy was a practice that was adhered to by most

of the populace in the European region but polygamy was not unknown or unheard of. With

the increasing hold of the church, a moral sanction was imposed on the populace that came

under the command of the church and hence, polygamy was vilified and so was virginity,
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with women being chastised and ostracized on the sexual intercourse out of wedlock.

Marriage was made the ultimately sacred ritual, on the basis of this women were subjugated

to various atrocities. With the emergence of the moral authority of the church, widow

remarriage and divorce became very difficult, although estrangement from wives and keeping

concubines could not be completely removed from the society but became rather veiled

(Ward 37). By entering the life of convent, women were considered married to the church

and therefore could not marry and had to live a life of celibacy. Within these convents,

women did have the choice to pursue arts, music, and academic knowledge and attain some

authoritarian positions like that of becoming abbesses.

In the absence of a uniform secular front of equality, like the modern constitution and

democratically elected leaders, the sole authority of governance of people fell in the hands of

the church, which was ruled by the pope, a male head. Under the church were the clergy, and

under them were convents run by nuns. The society during medieval times was deeply

patriarchal and hence women were relegated to laborious jobs without recognition. Moreover,

the only thing that women were considered proper for was child bearing and rearing. The

feminine mystique was reduced to being a mother. This was true for women belonging to

both royalty and countryside, albeit with women of royalty enjoying more extravagance and

entertainment through vagaries of being a princess or a queen. The rural women helped their

husbands in farming, blacksmithing, animal rearing and many other odd jobs (Bennett 32). At

the end of the day they also went back to their homes and looked after the children. It was a

time when being a woman especially from the working class a thankless precedent. The

essential dynamic of marriage in those times was for the wife to be present at all times for her

children and husband, while the males would go out to earn bread and shelter for the family

(Hanawalt 106).
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The marriage of women belonging to the aristocracy was usually arranged by their

families and there was less freedom for them. The two alternatives that were present for

women in those times was to either become a wife, take on the responsibilities of maintaining

the household and bear children or to ‘take the veil’, that is to become a nun. Once their lives

were devoted to the church, women were always confined to the walls of monasteries and

lead a lonely life, devoid of proper human interaction. These women then lived a life of

prayers, contemplation and religious chores. Many women did dedicate their lives to this

cause, which maybe speculated as a way out of bearing children and being married. The

power structure of the church imparted greater equality for women dedicating their lives to

religious causes. The abbesses had the power to take important economic and spiritual

decisions (Ward 75). Women also held positions of importance like the prioress, treasurers,

and spiritual counsellors.

Women of royalty enjoyed the highest of powers among social classes and other

women in middle ages. The queens and princesses had the power to rule if their husbands

passed away, although they were made to relegate their thrones or pass them on to the male

heirs as they came of age. Women of royalty in those ages did not have to work and lived a

life of leisure, albeit with noble restrictions being forced upon them (Williams 188). They did

not work in farms and did not live the life nuns. They were supposed to be elegant and

composed and to have mannerisms like a feather. They were more like political pawns in the

power game of kingdoms, with many being promised off to men belonging to royal families

at a very early age. As with other social classes during the middle ages, women of royalty

were expected to bear male heirs for their kingdoms. Although these women had power by

their sides but their lives were relatively captive. They were subjected to political and societal

pressures and hence lead a very complex life.


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There was a subclass of women after royalty, the lady of the manor. These women

were the ones who were wives of rich businessmen, counts and lords in those times. These

were influential in the society, as they commanded authority over land, animals, property and

agriculture. Although this command was ultimately under the tutelage of their husbands but

apart from this they were powerful (Labarge 153). These women were respected by the

general populace and doping menial jobs was considered to be beneath them. They

essentially assisted their husbands in their businesses and day to day affairs. These women

did not enjoy equality with their male counterparts, as their work was not acknowledged by

men of their own social class. They were seen as leaders by their servants but not by their

husbands who considered them more to be on the lines of being assistants. These women

were also expected to have children and expand the family name. Although bringing up their

children was more of a managerial activity for them with chores and duties being performed

mostly by their maids and servants.

The rural women, also called as peasant women in those times could be regarded as

the ones who enjoyed the most equal circumstances of all the social classes in medieval

times. This equality was not in terms of making decisions or becoming leaders but in terms of

general conditions in comparison with the men of the same social class. These women were

mainly farm hands, working in agriculture, doing labor intensive jobs like sowing, ploughing,

tilling and harvesting crops. These jobs were also worked on by men of peasant class and

hence women had greater equality on work front. Recognition for their work as farm hands

was absent for both men and women. These women also did not have the choice to hire maids

and servants and hence had to do all the household chores by themselves. Many peasant

women also worked as maids and servants for rich people, becoming shepherdesses, milk

nurses and maid servants. Many also chose not to marry as not many men in those times had

their own land. The lives of these women were also the toughest of the lot, with survival
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being the sole motive of life and child bearing being the motive of family and marriage.

During those times there were some jobs which were solely managed by women, like

brewing beer, spinning clothes and midwifery.

Throughout the span of the middle ages, the roles of women remained majorly

constant, with minor changes. As has been an ardent factor in western civilization, women

were relegated to child bearing roles in the middle ages. The societal structure in those times

was inherently patriarchal and hence women did not have the opportunity to diversify into

other spheres or rather explore life on their terms. For the women of royalty there was power

but no freedom, they were always looked upon as pawns in political games and had to bear

heavy societal pressures. For the rich townswomen, there was power but even then they could

not be equal to their male counterparts of same social standing. There was some respite for

the women who were married to the church and could have a chance at learning new things,

pursue artistic and literary dreams. The women of religion also had a fair share of power with

positions like prioress and abbesses. By becoming nuns, women had a chance of escaping the

monotony if life of being a child bearer and a farm hand. The last in the rung of societal

structure were the peasant women, farm hands who worked tiring and long hours just to

survive but also enjoyed equality among their male counterparts as both the sexes belonging

to this class had equally deplorable living conditions. No matter which economic class or

social division women belonged to in the medieval times, they were secondary citizens,

considered ideal mainly for being a mother and to be confined in the household.
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Bibliography

Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing

World . Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1999. Print.

Hanawalt, Barbara A. The Ties That Bound Peasant Families in Medieval England. 1st

ed. Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1989. Print.

Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life. 1st

ed. London: Beacon Press, 1986. Print.

Ranft, Patricia. Women and Religious Life in Premodern Europe. Basingstoke: St.

Martin's Press, 1988. Print.

Ward, Jennifer. Women in Medieval Europe: 1200-1500. 1st ed. Harlow: Routledge,

2002. Print.

Williams, Marty Newman, and Anne Echols. Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the

Middle Ages. 1st ed. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994. Print.

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