Women In The 17th Century

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Ladies of the 17th Century While maintaining the idea that women are inferior to men, there were a lot of depictions of women during this time period as domestic beings. The life of those in England, and the greater sphere of the world were influenced by the hierarchical pyramid with men on top and women at the bottom. This was mostly because of the assumption that this was the way that God intended, and that this is the way society must function. Of course, culture is made up of the “way of life”, the way of life being impacted by what the norms and expectations are of the current time period. Due to this, art and literature were also impacted by these norms and expectations. However, there were exceptions to this, and contradictions were …show more content…
Gender norms and sexuality were perceived as how it is depicted in The Law’s Resolutions of Women’s Rights, written in 1632. The intention was to make exemplary of the most known and respected work of literature, the Bible. The Law’s Resolutions of Women’s Rights begins with the passage of Genesis, which is about Creation as well as Adam and Eve. The patriarchy of the time period was justified by books such as these written by not only religious scholars, but intellectuals as well. The norms, values, and family roles for women were expected to be followed by all couples. English literature of the time period was both impacted by the roles of women as well as being influenced by …show more content…
Education, learning to read and write were not mandatory for a majority of people in the 17th century, let alone women, but people were expected to read and understand the Bible, thus the population of England during the 17th century were considerably more literate than in the past. Wealthy women had the opportunity to take private lessons from tutors to be educated in the arts and mathematics, and even though it’s a small percentage of the total women in England during the 17th century, there are accounts of these literate women. Their work includes feministic views, pre-feminism. There is a great debate on women’s issues beginning during this time period, “Ester Sowernam's pamphlet, Ester Hath Hang'd Haman; or An answer to a lewd pamphlet entituled The Arraignment of Women (1617), blames men and the patriarchal system for keeping their wives honorable and poor while paying their prostitutes generously, yet depriving them of status. Rachel Speght's Mousel for Melastomus (1617) has been interpreted as portraying marriage as slavery, while Constantia Munda's Worming of a Mad Dogge (1617) links the increase in men's abuse of women to the number of misogynistic treatises produced by the presses” (Feminism in the Renaissance). Note that “Constantia Munda” was another name Rachel Speght
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