Why were women not allowed to act on the stage in Elizabethan Times?

Answer 1

Er...because women were either chained to the kitchen sink or too busy plying their wares in gin houses.

In short, they weren't allowed because it wasn't proper. By Charles II's time, women were allowed to act AND were protected by the Crown if they did so, i.e. they couldn't be arrested. But there was still a certain amount of stigma attached to it - it'd be like a stripper nowadays.

Answer 2

Renaissance women were to remain silent, avoid political discussions and to focus on their duties within their husband's households.
(You could ascertain from this that acting took away from that silence and focus)
All of the actors in an Elizabethan Theatre company were male. There were laws in England against women acting onstage and English travellers abroad were amused and amazed by the strange customs of Continental European countries that allowed women to play female roles - at least one Englishman recorded his surprise at finding that the female actors were as good at playing female parts as the male actors back home. One woman - Mary Frith, better known as Moll Cutpurse - was arrested in the Jacobean period for singing and playing instruments onstage during a performance of a play about her life (Middleton and Dekker’s The Roaring Girl) and some suggest that she may actually have been illegally playing herself in the performance, and women sometimes took part in Court Masques (a very stylised and spectacular sort of performance for the Court, usually dominated by singing and dancing), but otherwise English women had no part in the performance of Elizabethan plays.

Answer 3

Women were not considered to be equal to men in anything. They were denied an education and because they were uneducated they were unable to even themselves recognise the utter injustice of their position. This is what is meant by oppression. Whereas acting was a way for men to express their ideas and injustices, the irony was that these self same men did not allow women to do the same. Women were simply mens property.

Answer 4

I believe during those times, only men are allowed to do anything that is outside of the house. It was the time when men are more productive or 'higher beings'.

Have you seen Stage Beauty or Shakespeare in Love? It may not answer your question fully but it would give you an idea.

Answer 5

It follows on from Greek theatre where women were only allowed to be part of the chorus and even these were priestesses, not plebs. Women were seen as second class citizens- they did not fight , they did not vote and their place was in the home to give birth to and raise children.

Answer 6

The guys back in those times thought women didn't have any talent. Even if the women did, the men thought it's the woman's place in the kitchen.
For the rich women, it wasn't lady-like. The rich women would try to enjoy their leisure time as much as possible (i.e. encourgaed to be lazy), as opposed to study and become actors.

Answer 7

Because women were considered inferior to men and anyways women cant act...men are much better actors...women shoudl stay in the kitchen by the oven...thats where they belong.

Answer 8

It was considered risque.... that is to say that only women of ill-repute (whores and such) acted or danced on the stage. Had to do in part with the "lack" of clothing.

Answer 9

Men wanted to keep all that fun for themselves. What I'd like to know is whose bright idea it was to get rid of the word "actress" and use "actor" for both genders lately. You would think the ladies would want to keep a word designed just for them.

Answer 10

Hate to say it but they were women. Wasn't allowed back then!