Gender Roles

This week in Medieval Europe we will look at the establishment of women within Canon Law, as well as women's place in society. Juxtaposing women such as; Eve, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and Joan of Arc are all important figures during this period. 

The role of women in Christianity is emphasised through Mary, mother of Jesus and how she - virginal - gave birth to not only the saviour but to a new age of believers and life.

What other female figures outside of the readings can you identify as being important in Medieval Culture? And what were your thoughts on the roles of such women aforementioned before? Were women in Christianity simultaneously revered and considered subordinate?

--Lauren

These readings cover medieval attitudes to women by revealing attitudes towards important women in Christian theology. Women were defined by their gender and sexual status – as maiden, wife or widow.  The power, sexuality and worth of women was both treated with suspicion and suppressed, and the authority of men emphasised. However, some women did manage to overcome these conditions. 

Bible:

• Woman (Eve) created for man, out of man, to be a helper to man…before ‘betraying’ him and getting them both kicked out of Eden
• Mary as the Mother of Jesus, worked with God and was ‘giver of life’ – opposite to Eve, who defied God and became the ‘giver of death’ (st Jerome). Virginity and purity emphasised
• Mary Magdalene a sinner who reformed, became a leader amongst her Christian community in Marseilles, converting the local governor and performing miracles. Later lived in wilderness, saw angels etc.

Sexuality:

• Abelard unsurprisingly is pro-sex…shows that the ideas he counters were common at the time of his writing the  letter (eg sex is not sinful just because it is enjoyable).
• Augustine of Hippo very negative towards sex – marriage and procreation ‘makes something good out of the evil of lust’, defending marriage: good for creating children and companionship, lust, fornication, infidelity and adultery are all temptations of Satan.
• St Jerome prizes virginity very highly – equates loss of virginity with Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. Only acceptable states for women (makes no mention of men) are to be virgins or to be married.

Power of women/women in power:

• Ancien Riwel demands nuns essentially hear no evil, speak no evil – modesty and demureness required.
• Saint Scholastica apparently had the power of influencing nature – but used it for a petty purpose (to force her brother stay with her), a very negative portrayal. Her brother Benedict was nevertheless a good person, and gave her a good Christian burial.
• Radegund may have established a convent, but was reliant on help and support of men to finance her convent, and for protection; women must be ‘taken under ward’
• St Clare writes that women are weak and fragile of body, but willing to take on the same hardships as her male counterparts.
• Joan of Arc first thought to be ‘deranged and deluded’ for boasting she could accomplish what the princes could not. Had to fight to be heard and taken seriously. Wore men’s clothing, suit of armour and rode with the men.
• Christine de Pisan clearly outlines dominant thought at the time: that women were subordinate to men, and prevented men from being all they could. The minds of women were thought to be inferior, and not worth an education. Nevertheless challenges all these notions by use of reason.

--Sian

Women and the family 

In the Medieval era gender roles played a major role in society.  The Klapisch article is divided into four main categories the role of women, marriage, children and the church. 

1. Women:

Society granted no specific place for them in the hierarchy. As they were not knights or could they be religious leaders. Women were defined by their body, gender and her relationships with family groups.

The role of women:

• Be obedient to their husband, father or care giver.
• Used to reconcile families and groups in society.
• Responsible for maintaining the alliance between the two clans.
• Husband comes first and her choices and opinions come second.
• To produce children and start the family line.
• Order and punish servants if they could be afforded.

Women had little rights:

• A widow a right to one third of her husband’s estate.
• Loss of rights and possessions when their husband died.
• Less control over their wealth as they were under the control of their husband.
• They must be obedient to their husband.
• Women could be kidnapped or forced into marriage or the convent.

2. Marriage:

Marriage was used as a way to end rivalry as two families joined together, forming a peace pact. A woman may be given to a man as a way to offer reconciliation. An example of marriage being used as a peace treaty, is in the eleventh century when the king of France Henry I married a bride in Kiev to form an alliance.  In Florence in 1300 the party of whites formed an alliance with the blacks as a man of the Cerchi family married to an Adimari bride. 

It was not uncommon for marriage to occur between blood relatives. At times brothers and sisters would marry if fortunes required it.

When women got married it involved two transfers the transfer of the bride to the new family and the transfer of wealth. Goods or money were given by the husband or his family to the family of the bride in exchange for the loss of their daughter. Later these gifts were given to the bride herself to assure she was maintained after her husband’s death.

By the twelfth century the dowry value from the wife’s family overcame the value of the husbands.  Women after their husband’s death would often loose what she had bought and what her husband had given her.

The age of marriage varied between social classes.  In 1200 the aristocracy tended to marry their girls young at 12 and 13 at which Cannon law permitted. Rural classes tended to marry their daughters of at 17 or 18. In Florentine bourgeoisie between 1340 and 1530 136 brides were married at the average age of 17.2.  Whereas young men tended to get married even later with an average age of 27.

3. Children:

Children were necessary in marriage in order to establish the male line. After the birth of their first child other children would follow at a rapid place. In 1461 one wife become a widow at 29 after having 12 children in her 13 years of marriage. Pregnancies occupied more than half a woman’s life before 40. Families would have between 10-12 children. However not many of them lived long, a child had a 1 in 2 chance of making it to adulthood.

4. The Church:

The Church had a great influence on marriage and the role of women in the Medieval era. The Church was against blood relation marriage however in 1215 the fourth Lateran Council lowered the requirement for marriage in the family from seven degree to four. The church also forbids the use of contraception as it would prevent new life.

Duties of the wives in the Medieval era range from forming alliances, to keeping the peace to raising the family to obeying the husband. Although women from different classes have different roles and needs they have one thing in common they are both seen as below men.

-- Steph D. & Erika

Marriage Making

In the high Middle Ages, marriage was matter of diplomacy and wealth, not love or mutual attraction. Marriage forged an alliance between two lineages, reinforced by the exchange of money, goods and property and the creation of offspring. The wife's job was to maintain peace between the two families and have as many children as possible.

Women often married into families of a lower social status, bringing with them a dowry for their new husband’s family. Women became a burden on the men of their family, who had to come up with a dowry in order to marry them off. Boys brought money into the family by way of marriage and girls took money away from it.

In addition, the control of any property a women inherited was transferred by default to the closest male relative, then to their husband when they married. Women were financially worth less than their husbands, in spite of any superiority of lineage and the inheritance they brought into the marriage. Their lack of financial worth could be equated with their lack of personal worth at the time, except for when it came to procreation. IN contrast, men could run businesses, own land and be self-sufficient.

Due to this dependency on men, girls were known to be married off, at the guidance of their fathers or brothers, as early as twelve. Men got married later, at an average age of twenty seven, when they had reached a certain social standing and level of power. Girls in lower classes got married an average of five years later than those coming from wealthy families or the aristocracy.

Marrying earlier meant that a women could have more children which, at a time where child mortality was very high, was very important, especially in ensuring that the lineage carried on.

Source: Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, 'Women and the Family', in Jacques Le Goff, ed. The Medieval World, (London: Parkgate, 1990), pp. 285-312.

--Jenn

Some questions to think about :

1. Do you think sexuality was understood in a positive or negative way?
2. What impediments does Klapisch-Zuber see to studying the lives and experiences of medieval women?
3. How does Klapisch-Zuber describe the duties of the wives in the Middle Ages?