DBQ: Simplified For Women

It's 1643 in England, and you’re a woman who longs for the opportunity to become a scientist. Not only is your husband so blessed to have a well-paying job, as you are located in the upper-middle class, but you are eager and joyful to begin learning about chemistry. There is a simple problem though, and that is that you want to be able to learn as much as you possibly can, but the only books you were allowed to buy were “Simplified for Women”. Why is that? Why don't you have the ability to be able to learn what men learn? It is quite simple, and that is because you live in the Renaissance, where men were heavily praised for their works and deemed strong and intelligent, while most of the time women were criticized and supposedly, “made to serve and obey man, not rule and command them”, (Doc 7). That is, though,
Even though most of the population at the time was partial to women’s education, many women were blessed with the opportunity to still be able to learn and succeed, and succeed they did. There were many opinions floating around at the time, with those opinions being easily divisible into three groups. Those groups being:
1. All women should be educated
2. Certain women with power can be educated,
3. No women whatsoever should be taught math, science, writing, or anything of the sort.
The first category supports women’s education, and most of the population at the time was against it. Although most were, many women still became excellent mathematicians, artists, and writers, and some men supported these women and encouraged other women to learn various subjects as well. In a painting by Johannes Vermeer, titled Woman Holding a Balance, (Doc 10),