was there progress toward equality between the sexes in early modern europe? literacy rates rose...
TRANSCRIPT
WAS THERE PROGRESS TOWARD EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES
IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE?
• Literacy rates rose among women, but not as rapidly as they did among men.
• Lutherans placed new emphasis on the need for companionship between spouses.
• Women remained excluded from almost all skilled trades and professions.
(See Merry Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 1993.)
Rubens,“The Last Judgment”
(1617):removed from the
Jesuit church in Neuburg in 1653
for its “offensive nudities”
“The School Room” (1526):A Protestant vision of the ideal school for both
boys and girls; in fact, there were very few schools for girls….
A Midwife’s Manual from 1545:
The birthing cradle and illustrations of the most common
positions of the fetus
Frans Hals, “Married Couple in a Garden” (ca 1622)
Lutherans argued that the tale of Adam’s rib symbolized the need for companionship between spouses, and Catholic writers soon adopted a similar ideal.
“Recipe for Marital Bliss” (ca. 1680): The husband should beat the wife for laziness, talkativeness,
vanity, or chasing after other men; the wife should beat the husband for drunkenness, laziness, or failure
to support his family.
Anne Bonny (1725):
This famous Irish woman pirate
was based in the Bahamas. She retired to South
Carolina, married, and lived 80
years.
A French knitwear workshop, 18th century:Women prepare the yarn at the spinning wheels, and the family father weaves the yarn into cloth
Women managers run this fancy Parisian dress shop in the 18th century, when more and more
middle-class customers sought to emulate court fashion
FRENCH WOMEN’S LIFE CYCLES, 1750 and 1960
From Joan Scott and Louise Tilly, Women, Work, and Family (New York, 1978).
In Europe there was no mass movement for women’s equality before the 1880s….
Entrance to Salpêtrière Hospital, founded in Paris in
1656
By 1780 it was the largest hospital in the world, with 10,000 patients, many of them suffering mental illness, plus 300 imprisoned prostitutes.