Throughout history, the role of women has always been subservient to men. Despite the advancements that have occurred along the way, the struggle for female equality exists nonetheless. In Catholicism, women cannot hold leadership roles in the church. This is a movement that has come a long way since the very beginning, yet the feminist perspective still has a long way to go. The number of women that were recognized as saints were very few, one of the few being Saint Leoba. Rudolf was a monk who was assigned to record vita of Saint Leoba. The task was called Life, where Rudolf’s diction, descriptions, and his tendency to jump back to male figures shows that Leoba was a powerful woman, despite the expectations of her gender to be subservient.…show more content… This statement shows that Rudolf’s opinion is held highly by many men and, perhaps, women as well. Rudolf states that while men could leave their monastery briefly, women could not, and if they had to speak to someone outside, “the superior of the community spoke through a window” (Rudolf). This part of the text sets up a stark contrast between the roles of men and women in the church. The communication for women is narrowed to a window, limiting the standards for women in comparison to men. This helps us understand that women back then were less respected and given less freedom. Rudolf describes life at the convent, characterized by self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence for both gender and all ages. However, Rudolf illustrates women’s role as being much stricter than the men’s. For women to only have the power to “speak through a window” implies that women could not choose to go out freely and speak to whomever they wish, but someone specific had to come to the window if they needed to talk. This way the superior/men could control everything outside of the window, while women were trapped in one…show more content… “Oh, what a chaste community... Beneath their veils give birth to children and exercise at one and the same time the function of mothers and priests, baptizing those to whom they have given birth.” This statement supports the argument that the Medieval Church generally saw women as inherently weaker than men. According to the text, the nuns had violated both the boundary that separated them from the life of the married, and also the boundary separating them from priestly functions. Although both men and women experience lust, the women who gave birth were less respected and viewed as weaker. It argues that women’s role in reproduction is limited to the physical, which the Church argued was ultimately insignificant in the grand scheme of life. In men’s eyes and, perhaps women’s also, nuns were seen as sinful and weak for not remaining chaste. The Church argued women should carefully control and restrict any sexual intercourse. Nevertheless, the Christian Church, with its emphasis on chastity, offered willful women an escape from domestic abuse and bondage. However, the freedom enjoyed by early female monastics was short-lived, as Roman ideologies gained superiority. The Vita of one particularly strong missionary woman of this period, Leoba, offers insight into
