Position of women in 16 and 17 century Essay

Women were challenged with expressing themselves in a patriarchal system that generally refused to admit merit to womens views. Cultural and g overnmental events during these centuries increased attention to womens issues such as procreation reform. Though modern feminism was non-existent.The social structure women limited opportunities for involvement they served largely as man geezerhoodrs of their households. Women were pass judgment to focus on practical domestic pursuits and activities that encouraged the betterment of their families, and more particularly, their husbands. Education for women was not supportharmful to the traditional female virtues of innocence and morality. Women who spoke out against the patriarchal system of gender roles, or any injustice, ran the risk of being exiled from their communities, or worse vocal unmarried women in particular were the targets of witch-hunts.The seventeenth century women continued to play a significant, though not acknowledged, r ole in economic and political structures through their primarily domestic activities.They often acted as counselors in the home, tempering their husbands words and actions. Women were discouraged from this instant expressing political views counter to their husbands or to broadly condemn established systems nevertheless, many women were able to make ordinary their private views through the veil of personal, religious writings.MarriageThe seventeenth century represents a fascinating point in time of English history, drawing the attention of whole generations of historians. This turbulent age saw three major events that had a deep impact on England s political as well as social intentthe English Revolution, the Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 and the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Amidst the turmoil of the events, peoples commonplace lives unfolded. While it was mens preoccupation to keep the countrys political and economic affairs going, women had an indispensable, though far l ess public, part to play. This paper aims at providing an outline of the seventeenth-century English spousal relationship, viewed from the womans perspective. It touches upon topics such as concluding marriages, basic marriage values, duties of a married woman and possibilities of divorce. Attention is give to the areas in which theseventeenth-century reality was different from todays.In seventeenth-century England, marriage and sexual morals played a far more important social role than nowadays. A family centred around a married compeer represented the basic social, economic and political unit. In the Stuart period, a husbands rule over his wife, children and servants was seen as an analogy to the kings reign over his peoplea manifestation of a hierarchy constituted by God. A woman was regarded as the weaker vessel (a phrase taken from the novel Testament)a creature physically, intellectually, morally and even spiritually inferior to a man therefore, the man had a right to domi nate her (Fraser 1981 1).In a society strongly influenced by Puritan values, sexual fair play and the status of a married person gave a woman respectability and social prestige. This, together with the fact that it was very difficult for women to find ways of making an independent living, meant that securing a husband was a guinea pig of great importance. Theoretically, it was contingent for two people to marry very young. The minimum legal age was 12 years for women and 14 years for men. In addition, it was possible for the couple to get engaged at the age of 7, with the right to break off the engagement on reaching the minimum age of consent (Stone 1965 652). However, early on marriages were rather rarethe average age of the newlyweds was about 25 years.Interestingly, the basic requirement for a lawfully valid marriage was not a formal consecration in a church, but the completion of a marriage contract, commonly called spousals. Spousals were an act in which the bride and gr oom said their vows in the present tenseper verba de prasenti (Ingram 1987 126). In a majority of cases, this procedure was accompanied by a church ceremony (banns). Yet if the marriage was concluded without witnesses and not consecrated in a church, it had the same legal validity. This practice had existed in England since the duodecimal century and lasted till 1753. Not having to go through a church ceremony made it possible for lovers to marry secretly, without the knowledge of their parents. In this way, they could escape the dynastic scheming of their families.