Introduction
Women empowerment was an unknown topic at the start of the medieval period. Men dominated all economic activities, and thus they could not allow women work in places beyond their home areas; hence, only men could work in distant places. In other words, the medieval period was a male-dominated era where women had no right to intervene in matters believed to be ‘men affairs’. Women in the medieval period could only be occupied in social activities.
According to the European history, the medieval period is defined as the period between the 5th century and 15th century. However, this period is believed to have been the starting point of women empowerment across the world due to religious and political influences. This paper explores the role of women in the medieval period and determines the impact of the medieval period on the feminism of the nineteenth century.
Women in the Eyes of Men Before and in Early Medieval Period
Women in the medieval period held social positions, which included being good wives, mothers, and nurses. Conventionally, women fitted well in these roles, as mostly they were required to remain at home. The most prestigious leadership roles, which women held, included being princesses and queens courtesy of their relationship with the rulers and even so, the queens and princesses could not play an active role in leadership.
Men viewed women as weak human beings who could not withstand the hard menial jobs, and thus they could not be allowed to participate in those jobs. In addition, men believed that women were always supposed to be submissive, and thus allowing them to carry out economic activities would have made them defiant to men orders (Cosman 70).
In addition, women also viewed themselves as subjects of men and thus they always tried to meet the demands of their counterparts. Men lived with the ideology that women were their helpers, hence women had the obligation of helping men without questioning or excusing themselves to meet their needs before men’s needs. Historically, it is believed that during the ages when women were total subjects to the men’s world, they were often abused and they got little help from the society.
During the medieval period, it was normal for a man to marry many wives and nobody could question him. Assaulting women for being disobedient and defiant was normal cases and such victims could not get justice from the society.
Women too were viewed as sexual objects and in some communities, raping an unmarried woman was equal to proposing for marriage to her as marrying her was one of the penalties to the culprit. However, the roles of women during the medieval period improved gradually as women were allowed to carry out economic activities such as brewing and selling brew among other activities (Lewis and Mills 90).
Role of Roman Catholic Church in Improving the Role of Women in the Medieval Period
The Roman Catholic Church is believed to be one of the major unifying factors that brought cultural changes during the medieval ages. The Roman Catholic Church is the oldest religious domination that played major roles in the development of civilization in the western world. The major factors believed to have enabled the church influence world cultures were its centralization of administration and strong network of bishops in different parts of the world.
The Roman Catholic Church played a major role in improving the role of women in the western world during the medieval period. Initially, the church activities were male-dominated and it is the only church in the Christian faith that does not have women acting like bishops. However, the church established the Christian Monasticism in the fifth century whereby some roles of the women in the church came into being.
Historically, the Christian convents that were developed later after the establishment of the monasteries marked a great milestone in developing the role of women in the society.
Young ladies had an opportunity to carryout church work as their lifetime vocations as nuns whereby they lived an alternative life to getting married and child-rearing work that was normal for women. Some women became powerful after working in the monasteries as abbesses and one renowned influential woman is Hilda of Whitby who was an influential figure internationally.
Common Activities for Women in Medieval Period
There were many common crafts for women in the medieval period, but hand spinning was the most common in the fifth century. They initially used the spindle and distaff, which is believed to have been tiring, but later developments were made by the introduction of the spinning wheel later in the middle ages.
Later in the period, brewing business came up whereby women were engaged in the business where they brewed beer by using hops and most of the work was done at home. However, in many traditional communities, only the married women were supposed to participate in the brewing and selling of beer as their husbands were in full control of the business (Schaus 61).
Women also carried out other important activities such as nursing the ageing and the sick coupled with midwifery. Women were believed to be good caregivers and thus they took the role of nursing the aged people in the society as well as the sick. Midwifery was a women’s affair and men stayed at a distance during the childbearing process. Some renowned women performed the duty of midwifery in the community; hence, they would be called upon to assist women in labor.
Midwives came out as special professionals and thus members of their community treated them in a special manner, due to the escalation of mortality rate amongst infants and mothers since there were no improved care facilities until the Middle Ages. In addition, infant, child, and mother mortality rates were high during the medieval period due to poor nutrition, but the scenario improved during the Late Middle Ages due to improved nutrition.
Women also played a major role in farming activities. They were mostly engaged in family land activities, but in some cases, large-scale farmers hired them as casual laborers for seasonal farm activities like planting, weeding, and harvesting.
They also played a major role in art activities where they worked on portraits while still at home. Other common activities that they were engaged in include dancing and singing as part of entertainment. They also made clothes for selling and family use for cloth making was not physically engaging, hence they did it mostly from their homes.
Factors that Contributed to Low Strength of Women
Other factors that contributed to low strength of women in the society during the medieval period included unavailability of decent working conditions, slavery, and unequal distribution of resources.
During the medieval period, there were no labor unions to fight for the good working conditions of workers, hence the workers were often discriminated by their employers and subjected to poor working conditions. In addition, the available job opportunities comprised menial jobs like mining, manual mineral processing, large-scale farming activities, and building and constructions among others that were physically engaging.
However, the employers did not bother to provide decent working conditions for employees; hence, it could not have possible for women to be economically engaged by the society. Additionally, workers were also supposed to work overnight or during late hours when it could have been hard for women to leave their domestic chores at the expense of working late. Poor pay also contributed to women not engaging in economic activities due to discrimination from employers.
Secondly, there was slavery trade during the medieval period; therefore, slave traders did not engage women in the slave trade due to low demand. Traders opted to take men due to the physical strength that was suitable for the nature of slave jobs. Hence, women were spared on the grounds of not being suitable for these jobs.
In the case where women were engaged in slavery, traders were penalized for taking away women was referred to as ‘exterminating communities’, which implies that women were taken as child-bearers and hence they could not be subjected to economic activities on such grounds (Schulenburg 78). Thirdly, unequal distribution of resources also played a major role in the discrimination of women in the society, and hence their low economic strength.
There were very few rich people in the society, but the majority of them were poor people who earned their living from menial jobs that the rich provided. The rich were often the trade merchants who dealt with mineral business, agricultural trade, and textiles. Medieval period comprised people who were good in trade and production of goods in agriculture, mining, and textile sector.
However, developed industries were missing due to low literacy levels and the few that were privately owned paid peanuts to the employees due to cheep labor.
If industries were developed with better literacy levels, women would have been economically engaged. If that was the case, there could have been simpler jobs for women. In addition, the few rich people assumed the responsibility of controlling the economy and they owned large tracts of lands, and thus they pushed communities to small tracts of land, which were often sparsely populated.
Consequently, the rich employed the community as laborers in their lands where they subjected them to poor working conditions and paid low wages. Even in the contemporary times, some of those large tracts of lands are still in existence in some parts of Europe and North America. They are evidence of the intensity of unequal distribution of resources that communities experienced during the medieval and the middle age periods.
Women Empowerment
Women empowerment has its roots in the medieval period. The historical events of the middle ages until the twentieth century in which women fought for their rights through social movements have their roots on the events of the medieval period. Education for women was not common in the medieval period, but the concept that the Roman Catholic Church empowered women is believed to have been the beginning of female education (Leyser 282).
The church, through the establishment of monasteries during the medieval period, offered job opportunities to females and those who volunteered to serve in the church became nuns. In order to become nuns, young women had to go through education. Through the biography of St. Ita of Ireland who died in 570 AD, it is evident that female education in the medieval period was initiated by the church and she was the founder of a school where young boys and girls were taught at the monastery of Cell Ide (Leyser 114).
Looking into the catholic tradition, the catechetical school of Alexandria, which is the oldest church school dating back to 200AD, is believed to have offered catechetical lessons to both males and females. Early doctors and writers of the Catholic Church such as St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome wrote letters to women in convents, which they had either founded or supported in their service for the church (Cosman 182).
Other crucial evidence is the foundation of learning institutions, which looked more into female education across Europe and other parts of the world that the Catholic Church had reached during the medieval period.
The development of education, which opened its doors to females, gave rise to innovations that involved both men and women in the economic sector. The education facilities continued to increase and demand for teachers and administrators rose, hence offering job opportunities to both men and women. Educated women encouraged communities to uphold education for females and their efforts were paid by an increase in the number of female enrolment in education facilities (Schulenburg 79).
Education resulted in the empowerment of communities and motivated them to demand better working conditions from their employers as well as reasonable payments. Educated women were not left behind as they advocated for the rights of women to be given job opportunities, as they too were capable of working, which was influenced by western culture where women were more educated than in other regions.
Consequently, early economic developments that ensued education development gave opportunities for both men and women. The only major difference between early female workers and today’s female workers is that the former were subjected to discrimination and inequality. Men were paid higher salaries than women and women were employed in smaller numbers than their counterparts. The trend changed during the middle ages with the rise of feminism.
Conclusion
Women empowerment started in the medieval period due to the influence of the western culture among other factors. However, the Roman Catholic Church played a major role in the empowering of women during the medieval period as its establishment of monasteries gave rise to female job opportunities. In addition, females who became nuns went into convents where they were required to go through a series of studies before qualifying as fully pledged nuns.
The church also initiated female education across Europe, and thus educated women got job opportunities in areas where men had hitherto dominated. The process of female empowerment is sequential, but it is evident that its roots run back to the medieval period and the western culture though the Roman Catholic Church and economic activities played a major role.
Works Cited
Cosman, Madeleine. Women at Work in Medieval Europe, New York: Checkmark Books Publishing, 2001. Print.
Lewis, Reina, and Sara Mills. Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, London: Routledge Press, 2003. Print.
Leyser, Henrietta. Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England, 450-1500, Oxford: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Print.
Schaus, Margaret. Women and gender in medieval Europe: an encyclopedia, London: Routledge Press, 2006. Print.
Schulenburg, Jane. Forgetful of their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Print.