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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page research paper that explores the lives of medieval women. There is a conception of the role of women during the Middle Ages that pictures them essentially in the role of victim‹suppressed and kept in a position of inferiority by the forces of patriarchy. However, numerous historians are now taking a more detailed view of the roles that women played during the medieval period. This research has revealed a distinctly different picture of medieval life than the one that is typically accepted. An examination of some of this historical research substantiates a new view of women during the Middle Ages as a vital force in shaping their society. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_90medwom.rtf
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now taking a more detailed view of the roles that women played during the medieval period. This research has revealed a distinctly different picture of medieval life than the one
that is typically accepted. It makes sense that one-half of the adult population would not be as thoroughly subservient as past literature has portrayed women. An examination of some of
this historical research substantiates a new view of women during the Middle Ages as a vital force in shaping their society. One of the common assumptions about the Middle
Ages has been that the social inferiority of women was expressed and maintained "through the institution of male guardianship over them" (Kittrell 896). While some historians have asserted this as
absolute fact, others have been more cautious. Kittrell asserts that an examination of the legal records of the period that date from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries shows that, while
guardianship was extensively documented pertaining to minor children, these documents do not include provisions for any similar institutional hold over women (896).
Focusing on medieval Flanders specifically, Kittrell reports that an examination of the legal record relative to constraint on the movements and other indications of "bodily integrity" on women are simply
not present. Likewise, in regards to formal written statutes that pertain to the possession and disposal of a womans property, her position in the family, and her employment, Kittrell could
find no evidence that either a formal or informal system of guardianship of men over women was documented (896). Other historians who are currently doing research into the role
of women in the medieval Europe concur. Sue Gaisford has found that the stereotypical images of convents as dumping-grounds, men being the only significant heirs, and the like are simply
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