Gender Roles In The Early Modern Era

Gender Roles in Early Modern Period Writings
The early modern period writing concerning gender roles have a real relation to the thinking and debate that is seen going on in today’s world. Throughout time, women have been held responsible, demeaned, and used to further the agendas of their male counterparts. It is interesting to discover that women initially began the women’s rights movement as early as the 1500s. The woman’s suffrage movement was what won the right to vote in the 1900s. Which opened up many doors for women. However, their earlier ancestors were already fighting for the rights of women long before them. So, what in the Renaissance brought about this sudden apparent interest in the equality of men and woman?
In the year of
However, in the Early Modern Period, this particular case would set in motion an idea that maybe, just maybe, women could think, create, and act all on their own. Elizabeth was not just some weak woman, hiding behind her advisors and on the constant hunt for a husband. She made decisions, she stood up for herself, she would not be belittled, and most interesting of all: she never married. This made her rather an odd character during a time when woman were barely allowed to speak without consent. Her reign brought up many questions for woman “This system was based on an order where men were the heads of households, and women were considered to be naturally subordinate. If women were naturally subordinate, how could a queen rule” (Lavine 21)? Suddenly women had found their inspiration, their idol to follow. Of course, quite a few men saw this as a threat. Pamphlets were written, like Joseph Swetnam’s essay which states: “…women are sprung from the devil, whose heads, hands, and hearts, minds and souls are evil, for women are called the hook of all evil because men are taken in by them”(850). These writing encouraged men to see the female as a
Unfortunately many of these writings remain unclear as to whom the writer might be. Women were still discovering their voice, and many already had husbands and families. It would have been dangerous for them to take credit for their writings. One author was brave enough to take a stand against the thinking of Joseph Swetnam, and she was not afraid to use her real name. Rachel Speght was the daughter of a rector and the wife of a minister in the early 1600s. While some today might argue against placing her in the category of a feminist, her ideas were quite modern and astounding in a society where equality between the sexes was thought to be a threat to the ego of man. Her belief was that man could not place the blame of sin on woman, for woman is the weaker vessel. It is man’s mission to protect and guide the woman, as equal partners in life, not to ridicule and put down. “…He (Adam) being the better able than the woman to have resisted temptation, because the stronger vessel, was first called to account, to show that to whom much is given, of them much is required.”(853-854). Although, her ideas today might seem old fashioned in our world today, her overall idea was that of an equal partnership between man and woman. Margaret Tyler, writing in 1578, argued that male writers wrote for female readers and that “…if men may and do bestow such of their travails upon gentle women, then may we