Teresa de Cepeda was born in wealthy Spanish family in the year 1552 in Avila. She was extremely devout and believed that she was picked for some special work of the Lord since her childhood. At the age of 21 she went to a Carmelite convent against her father’s will. There she embarked on a meticulous spiritual regime that eventually broke her health. During this duration she had dreams that convinced her that her task was to travel allover Spain looking for new monasteries and convents.
Against the oppositions of her leaders Teresa kept to this spiritual direction. St Teresa in her autobiography describes her extremely personal and numinous association with God. The common men and women who identified with the new spiritual rebirth of Spanish Catholicism were helped by her writings. One day in prayer she found herself in an instant without understanding how, in fact she was plunged to hell.
Teresa opposed the role that society at that time had set for her. Women in the fifteenth century were supposed to get married, give birth, nurture their families and be submissive to their husbands. It was the patriarchal role of the man as head of the family to provide. This is supported by the fact that Teresa is opposed both by society and parents (father) when she joins religion (Teresa 283).
Religion especially the Roman Catholic Church did not have direct roles for women (Lawrence 108). Teresa pioneered in creating roles for women in the Roman Catholic Church showing the society that women too can do what men can do. Society and the church leaders who were male were not free and did not accept the role that Teresa had begun to play in religion. In her visions, she tries to share with the society; most of the people take her visionaries for granted. They do not believe in her.
Were it that she would have had been a man, then they would have had believed in her works. Again another factor in her life that made her contradict with the role of the woman in those times was that she broke ranks with men and became a public figure in the church buy beginning convents throughout Spain and Europe. Women were supposed to support men to be famous and not the other way round. However, when they saw her determination and success, they began to read her writings and somehow believe in her visionaries.
Margaret Paston was born in a family of English landowners in the fourteenth century. Letters written in English were not common in the sixteenth century and Pastons left so many letters than anybody else in their generation. Margaret outlived her husband and spent her widowhood as a respected common landowner. Margaret was committed in her family affairs and her local society. More so she was an active writer whose letters followed the course of landowning life in the chaotic fifteenth century most of these writings revolve around her conflict with her neighbors due to land disputes. Women in the fourteenth century were not supposed to be land owners.
This is what brought about conflict with her neighbor Lord Moleyn. Women like Margaret, were supposed to nurture family. In her letters, she has described how she depended on her husband on everything in the family (Margaret 208).
Christine de Pisan was born in 1365 in Italy; she was the daughter of the court astrologer to the king of France. Christine was given education that was meant for sons of the court nobility. She married an official in the court whose untimely death widowed her at the age of 25-years. She was left with three little children to take care of; she changed to literary exploration in support of her three children and herself. She authored both prose and poetry and most of her literature was commissioned and rewarded by patrons. Christine is known to be the first feminist writer; she was the first to use her name in the defense of women.
During this time women were not expected to receive education, but Christine through education she was able to author books that she sold and was able to generate income that enabled her feed and educated her family. Christine in her writings discusses various ladies who were enlightened with great comprehension and most importantly the dignified maiden Cornificia who was taken to school at a tender age by her parents together with her brother. She became more in learning and neglected the other feminine duties. She was gifted with knowledge and she committed herself to learning, she became a great poet (Christine 203).
Magdalena Behaim was born in 1555 in Germany; her husband traveled long and unsafe distances in order to provide for his family. Magdalena was left behind as her husband, who was a merchant, made his travels to enable him provide for his family. It was believed that women were supposed to remain indoors and not help men in businesses they were to wait for their husbands to provide food and other basics for the family. Magdalena in her writings indicates that she helped her husband in their business and her role in the husband’s business was very crucial. She helped her husband in raising the family economically. As a result many other women emulated the example of Magdalena the merchant’s wife and were able to engage in different businesses and help in raising their families economically (Magdalena 312).
The women’s greatest and very important drive to improve on their position in the community was the fact that the women were determined and risked in changing the men’s perception on them; the women required regards and equal treatment as the men were receiving since they were contributing even more than men. The involvement in businesses by women successfully contributed to them making a great impact in the perception of men towards them in the community.
The women as portrayed by Teresa also wanted to change the religious point of view towards them, thus they tirelessly fought to counter the belief that the women were less than men in terms of the role that they play in the society (Rosenwein 12). It is therefore evident that the importance of women is endless.
Men have come to acknowledge that women play a significant degree of contribution to make life easy for them and the children as well as the contribution to the economy of the nation. Those who talk ill of women or portray acts of violence to the women should learn that they have the obligation to respect them for who they are as well as what they can do (Kishlansky, Mark., Geary, Patrick and O’Brien 70).
Works Cited
Kishlansky, Mark., Geary, Patrick. J. and O’Brien, Patricia. Civilization in the West. (7th ed). New York, NY: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Lawrence, Clifford.H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Longman, 2001.
Pisan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies (1405). New York, NY: Persea Books, 1998.
Rosenwein, Barbara. H. A Short History of the Middle Ages. Alberta, CA: Broadview Press, 2001.