Position of women in 16 and 17 century Essay

Women were challenged with expressing themselves in a patriarchal system that generally refused to portion merit to womens views. Cultural and semipolitical events during these centuries increased attention to womens issues such as education reform. Though modern feminism was non-existent.The tender structure women limited opportunities for involvement they served largely as managers of their households. Women were expected to snap on practical house servant pursuits and activities that encouraged the betterment of their families, and more special(prenominal)ly, their husbands. raising for women was not supportedharmful to the traditional female virtues of innocence and morality. Women who utter out against the patriarchal system of gender roles, or any injustice, ran the run a risk of being exiled from their communities, or worse vocal un married women in particular were the targets of witch-hunts.The seventeenth century women continued to play a significant, though not ack nowledged, role 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 straightway expressing political views counter to their husbands or to broadly condemn established systems neverthe little, umpteen women were able to make public their private views through the veil of psycheal, religious writings.MarriageThe seventeenth century represents a fascinating period of slope history, drawing the attention of whole generations of historians. This turbulent age saw deuce-ace major events that had a deep impact on England s political as well as social lifethe English Revolution, the counter of the Stuarts in 1660 and the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Amidst the turmoil of the events, peoples e actuallyday lives unfolded. While it was mens preoccupation to keep the landed estates political and economic affairs going, women had an indispensable, though further less public, part to play. This paper aims at providing an outline of the seventeenth-century English marriage, 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 paid to the areas in which theseventeenth-century reality was different from right aways.In seventeenth-century England, marriage and sexual morals played a far more important social role than nowadays. A family centred around a married couple 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 observation of a hierarchy constituted by God. A woman was regarded as the weaker vessel (a phrase taken from the New Testament)a creature physically, intellectually, chastely and even spiritually inferior to a man therefore, the man had a right to dominate her (Fraser 1981 1).In a society strongly influenced by Puritan values, sexual integrity 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 matter of great importance. Theoretically, it was possible for two people to espouse 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 reach the minimum age of consent (Stone 1965 652). However, early marriages were rather rarethe bonnie age of the newlyweds was about 25 years.Interestingly, the basic requirement for a legally 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 groom 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 ordinance (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 twelfth century and lasted cashbox 1753. Not having to go through a church ceremony make it possible for lovers to marry secretly, without the knowledge of their parents. In this way, they could escape the dynastic astute of their families.