Women's Roles: From Late Antiquity To The High Middle Ages
Elke Steinmeyer
History 103
12/09/2013
Women’ s Roles in Power From Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages
The picture that comes to mind when painting the role of women a thousand years ago is a bleak image of women being bound to the home, and a slave to back breaking labor around the house while producing as many children as possible, with no hope or possibility of a more complex role in society. However, and refreshingly, this was not the sole place for a woman from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages.
While peasants, men and women alike, would have been bound to a life similar to the one described above, peasant women could be the head of the family when their husband passed, and possess money in their name. More impressively, women in positions of power “owned land, led battles, decided disputes, and entered into and broke political alliances at their advantage and dictated.” (Rosenwein, 240). While it is commonly known of just a few women who were lucky enough to lead lives such as this, more were blessed with these roles than usually assumed. What leads most to picture the huge minority role for women is actually the societies that developed after the Middle Ages. A thousand …show more content…
While many women did turn to acting like men, in the thought that they had to deny their feminine nature so that their male subjects would take them seriously; they had to prove that they were brave, capable or smart because in their hearts they were men. However, many women were able to use the exact opposite to their advantage. Women asserted their authority by pointing out and embracing their misogyny, insisting that they were pious, modest and domestically-minded pure souls whose position of power was no threat to
History 103
12/09/2013
Women’ s Roles in Power From Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages
The picture that comes to mind when painting the role of women a thousand years ago is a bleak image of women being bound to the home, and a slave to back breaking labor around the house while producing as many children as possible, with no hope or possibility of a more complex role in society. However, and refreshingly, this was not the sole place for a woman from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages.
While peasants, men and women alike, would have been bound to a life similar to the one described above, peasant women could be the head of the family when their husband passed, and possess money in their name. More impressively, women in positions of power “owned land, led battles, decided disputes, and entered into and broke political alliances at their advantage and dictated.” (Rosenwein, 240). While it is commonly known of just a few women who were lucky enough to lead lives such as this, more were blessed with these roles than usually assumed. What leads most to picture the huge minority role for women is actually the societies that developed after the Middle Ages. A thousand …show more content…
While many women did turn to acting like men, in the thought that they had to deny their feminine nature so that their male subjects would take them seriously; they had to prove that they were brave, capable or smart because in their hearts they were men. However, many women were able to use the exact opposite to their advantage. Women asserted their authority by pointing out and embracing their misogyny, insisting that they were pious, modest and domestically-minded pure souls whose position of power was no threat to