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Women in Culture and Society
Women of the Renaissance
In this informative and lively volume, Margaret L. King synthesizes a large body of literature on the condition of western European women in the Renaissance centuries (1350-1650), crafting a much-needed and unified overview of women's experience in Renaissance society.
Utilizing the perspectives of social, church, and intellectual history, King looks at women of all classes, in both usual and unusual settings. She first describes the familial roles filled by most women of the day—as mothers, daughters, wives, widows, and workers. She turns then to that significant fraction of women in, and acted upon, by the nuns, uncloistered holy women, saints, heretics, reformers,and witches, devoting special attention to the social and economic independence monastic life afforded them. The lives of exceptional women, those warriors, queens, patronesses, scholars, and visionaries who found some other place in society for their energies and strivings, are explored, with consideration given to the works and writings of those first protesting female the French Christine de Pizan, the Italian Modesta da Pozzo, the English Mary Astell.
Of interest to students of European history and women's studies, King's volume will also appeal to general readers seeking an informative, engaging entrance into the Renaissance period.
Utilizing the perspectives of social, church, and intellectual history, King looks at women of all classes, in both usual and unusual settings. She first describes the familial roles filled by most women of the day—as mothers, daughters, wives, widows, and workers. She turns then to that significant fraction of women in, and acted upon, by the nuns, uncloistered holy women, saints, heretics, reformers,and witches, devoting special attention to the social and economic independence monastic life afforded them. The lives of exceptional women, those warriors, queens, patronesses, scholars, and visionaries who found some other place in society for their energies and strivings, are explored, with consideration given to the works and writings of those first protesting female the French Christine de Pizan, the Italian Modesta da Pozzo, the English Mary Astell.
Of interest to students of European history and women's studies, King's volume will also appeal to general readers seeking an informative, engaging entrance into the Renaissance period.
350 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 1991
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March 17, 2021read for school in order to research for a paper. i skimmed some portions of it, so i won't give it a star review.
November 27, 2016
In this book Margaret King examines the lives of upper class and occasionally the lives of artisan/middling women also. She largely omits an account of lower class women from her work but this is intentional and admitted from the start. King builds an account by identifying the main social roles that were available to women during the period from the late fourteenth century to the seventeenth century and then devotes chapters to these categories. King summaries the driving question within her work as 'Did women have a renaissance also?", and the following chapters through examining the written accounts of women and also men writing on women serve to get to grips with this question.
For King the roles of women during this period can largely be divided into those of wife, mother, and nun. Women during this period she explains were almost entirely defined in relation to sexuality within a Christian framework. Either as mothers to produce children and continue family lines, or as nuns embracing virginity in the convent. The emphasis on 'virginity' prior to marriage and in lieu of it is of exceptional importance for a woman's social position during these times. Women were also the vessels of property and familial power through marriage and subsequent dowries but only ever indirectly for the benefit of the natal family or that of the husband's and never for her own sake; although this too can be seen in relation to her sexuality.
King examines what women could and could not do during these centuries, whilst also keeping a view open to the possibility of exceptions or evidence of contradicting accounts. In particular she examines the extent to which a woman could be educated, and what this education would consist of. Additionally the possibly of lifestyles that did not include being a mother.
The general account that King communicates is that women were by and large restricted to the domestic sphere of being wife and mother, with the possibility of gaining a limited Humanist education and reprieve from motherhood through the life of a nun with very little alternative but for a few exceptional figures. King however emphasises the fact that these life choices were mostly not in the hands of women and were usually chosen for them by male authority figures for their own ends. Present throughout her investigation of women's social roles is the attitudes of men towards women communicated through church and literature. These attitudes form the social climate within which women's perceived value was measured and explains the choices that were made available to them.
King examines the position of widows and rare female monarchs, as well as the few pro-women writings in favour of measures of equality or emancipation from the control of men. However by the end of the book, in answering her question formally, King concludes that socially women did not have a renaissance such as was experienced by their male relatives, however a shift in women's consciousness did occur potentially paving the way for post-enlightenment women's rights. However prior to the Enlightenment, a case for a movement towards women's rights and emancipation cannot be substantially made.
For King the roles of women during this period can largely be divided into those of wife, mother, and nun. Women during this period she explains were almost entirely defined in relation to sexuality within a Christian framework. Either as mothers to produce children and continue family lines, or as nuns embracing virginity in the convent. The emphasis on 'virginity' prior to marriage and in lieu of it is of exceptional importance for a woman's social position during these times. Women were also the vessels of property and familial power through marriage and subsequent dowries but only ever indirectly for the benefit of the natal family or that of the husband's and never for her own sake; although this too can be seen in relation to her sexuality.
King examines what women could and could not do during these centuries, whilst also keeping a view open to the possibility of exceptions or evidence of contradicting accounts. In particular she examines the extent to which a woman could be educated, and what this education would consist of. Additionally the possibly of lifestyles that did not include being a mother.
The general account that King communicates is that women were by and large restricted to the domestic sphere of being wife and mother, with the possibility of gaining a limited Humanist education and reprieve from motherhood through the life of a nun with very little alternative but for a few exceptional figures. King however emphasises the fact that these life choices were mostly not in the hands of women and were usually chosen for them by male authority figures for their own ends. Present throughout her investigation of women's social roles is the attitudes of men towards women communicated through church and literature. These attitudes form the social climate within which women's perceived value was measured and explains the choices that were made available to them.
King examines the position of widows and rare female monarchs, as well as the few pro-women writings in favour of measures of equality or emancipation from the control of men. However by the end of the book, in answering her question formally, King concludes that socially women did not have a renaissance such as was experienced by their male relatives, however a shift in women's consciousness did occur potentially paving the way for post-enlightenment women's rights. However prior to the Enlightenment, a case for a movement towards women's rights and emancipation cannot be substantially made.
January 2, 2018
Very slow read. At first I thought the author had been over ambitious, attempting to boil the ocean -- drawing from hundreds of years of documents from all over Europe. As I slogged through to the end though it became apparent why the the broad scope -- the author has a twentieth century point of view and cherry picked the data to map that view to a time when it clearly did not exist. (I guess to give it historical credibility?) To the author's credit some counter data is cited, only to be immediately labeled "exceptions" without any proof. The bibliography is best part, for it allows the ambitious to read the first hand accounts themselves without any of the author's bias. (To be fair, that probably could be said of any historical synopsis book, bias is so hard to avoid. Some books do it better than others, this sadly isn't one of them.)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews