Today, for the most part, modern Western society sees itself as practicing an enlightened view of female and male gender roles. Anyone can be a police officer or a janitor, a hairdresser or a jeweler. We give young men and women equal education, equal opportunities, and equal pay for equal work.
Meanwhile, we often think of medieval society as having treated the issue of gender roles in a vastly inferior way. Women--well, they had no legal protection and were always being ordered around and mistreated, right? Didn't they have to be subservient and docile, and marry old men, unless they became nuns, which many did? As for men, they had to be knights or serfs, and spent all their time fighting, or ordering around their women.
Wrong.
While it is true that Roman law did subjugate women and deny them basic legal rights, German law, the law of the Middle Ages, treated men and women more equally. Women could inherit and own property, as well as press charges against men for rape.
Medieval women generally married men of their own age and were treated as equal partners in marriage. In marriage, it was even customary to have the groom give the bride a dowry before marriage, in contrast to many dowry customs that are still enforced today. Few women, contrary to myth, actually entered nunneries: nunneries were expensive, and women had more freedom in a marriage than they would in a nunnery.
Employment opportunities were also good for women: they had access to most craft guilds. In fact, only women were allowed into the dressmaking and lace-making guilds. A small number of women also entered universities and became scholars: the most famous was Heloise, who many know today primarily for her star-crossed love affair with the famous French philosopher Peter Abelard.
Men, meanwhile, also had a great range of career opportunities, though much was determined, for both men and women, by their economic status.
For a middle-class young man, there were opportunities to be a merchant, artisan, or craftsman, as well as a priest or scholar. However, if he yearned to be a master dressmaker--well, then he was out of luck.
As far as I know, there was also significantly less media pressure on medieval women and men. Medieval teenagers were not bombarded, as they are today, by messages urging them to dress like Britney Spears or buy the latest Eminem CD. There was less pressure to conform to outlandish gender role stereotypes, such as those exemplified by the Barbie doll or the video game Duke Nukem.
Instead, the medieval ethic focused on the importance of home and family. The only exceptions to this were the clergy (nuns and priests) who were generally celibate. Society expected people to marry, settle down, and have children. This custom helped to keep families together and children well cared for, at the cost of some personal freedom for all.
Things weren't perfectly equal, of course (have they ever been?). Women weren't able to rise to the top of the religious hierarchy and were often not paid as well as men. Men, meanwhile, were expected by society to be at least partial breadwinners for their family--there was no concept of the man staying home full-time to care for the children and the woman working.
However, the variety and equality of potential gender roles in the Middle Ages was much better than is commonly thought, and the societal pressures on men and women may well have been more healthy than they are today.
2006-12-16 05:37:01
·
answer #1
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
In the middle ages, the roles of all people were pretty strictly defined, not only by sex but also by class. So while it is said that women had few choices, this was also true of men.
Typically women ran the household. This involved a great deal more than a modern household, since they were responsible for growing and processing much of the food, as well as spinning, weaving and sewing the clothes, and of course bearing and caring for the children. The division of labor would vary depending on wealth and class, of course.
An alternative to this would be to join a convent as a nun. Nuns were more likely to learn to read and write, and were exempt from childbearing, but they still had to work pretty hard at household tasks.
2006-12-16 12:56:42
·
answer #2
·
answered by The First Dragon 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
Same as today. Which is:
Whatever role that fits into their families search for survival.
Come to think about it:
That is exactly what is always the role of both men and women, and children.
"Whatever role that fits into their families search for survival."
2006-12-16 05:32:33
·
answer #3
·
answered by MrsOcultyThomas 6
·
0⤊
0⤋
"man", "some one" and "Julia" are mischevious pranksters who have found a way into Yahoo's programming and not only are they mimicing the questions posed by real participants, but they also offer a very suspicious link that smart people shoud NOT CLICK ON: it may be a virus, dialer virus or spyware seeder trap.
It's evident that "man", "some one" and "Julia" are also ZOOMING fast up the participant level ladder too; they may be seeking to snatch up points. Eventually, Yahoo administration will find a way to foil their plans.....here's your chance to kick a spammer in the balls:
ALL responsible participants of Yahoo Answers forum need to report these pranksters when they're seen. They may change names, but their MO is the same and they're easy to spot.
2006-12-16 05:28:36
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
2⤊
2⤋
To cook, clean, and bear children. The men were the ones who brought home the bacon. My how the times have changed....
2006-12-16 06:29:04
·
answer #5
·
answered by guitardan 5
·
0⤊
0⤋
Women tended to the house. well, not like you would think of it now. but they were supposed to bear a ot of kids i think
2006-12-16 05:29:54
·
answer #6
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
Submit to the man.
2006-12-16 05:29:20
·
answer #7
·
answered by pirateman22us 1
·
0⤊
0⤋
To have bad breath and hairy underarms.
2006-12-16 05:29:14
·
answer #8
·
answered by XL HaHa 2
·
0⤊
1⤋
peoperty and breeders.
You asked. I answered, don't be sad by the truth. :P
2006-12-16 05:43:27
·
answer #9
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
the same like nowadays!
2006-12-16 05:30:52
·
answer #10
·
answered by BORAT 1
·
0⤊
1⤋