The Medieval Idea of Women (Essay Sample)

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The Medieval Idea of Women
During the medieval times, women played roles that mainly involved looking after the family and the home, and they hardly had access to equal rights with men. The medieval period was not a comfy period for many women. Only few women appeared to live comfy lives in this period. The medieval society was totally dominated by men. Women had little say in the medieval society. They had little or no roles to take part in within the country. The society dictated the kind of jobs women would do. For the few women who ventured into work in towns, it would be nursing, weaving, writing, spinning, and baking ("Medieval Gender" n. p). Many women also worked in the fields, alongside their husbands, considering the fact that most women lived in rural areas, but they hardly earned recognition for their work. For instance, women would get 5 pence for reaping while men would get 8 pence for the same work ("Medieval Women" n. p). However, no woman would openly complain about such disparities in the medieval society dominated by men.
The principle duty of women during the medieval times was to take care of the family. Women were tasked with ensuring that their children and husbands are well taken care of. Their chores mainly included cooking, doing housework, looking after children, and looking after their home. They roles women played as wives during medieval times were of uttermost importance and they were expected to meet needs of their husbands at all times. In turn, a man would go out to work as to earn money for supporting the family.
Women in the medieval times never had any access to equal rights with men like they currently do. For instance, women were not allowed to have political votes ("Medieval Gender" n. p). As such, women would not participate in any political elections either as contestants or voters. The right to participate in political functions was only entitled to men. Women also lacked rights of choosing whether to marry or not and at what time ("Medieval Gender" n. p). For instance, girls from rich backgrounds generally were married off earlier than those from poor backgrounds. This was because poor family backgrounds needed as many children working for them as possible. As such, marrying off a girl from a poor background would mean the family would be deprived off a worker. Parents are thereby the ones who decided when a girl would be married and to who. Once a girl would be married off, she would be under the control of the husband.
Similarly, women did not have rights to take part in white collar jobs. This is because they hardly got access to education. Families would educate male children at the expense of female children. However, few girls would access some form of basic education especially in rich families where there were few or no male children. Women who would choose to be nuns would also access basic education as an addition to their devotion to Christianity ("Medieval Gender" n. p).
During the medieval times, women rarely had rights to choose what to wear. In most cases, women dressed according to what their husbands wanted and not what they personally preferred ("Medieval Gender" n. p). Women would dress in humility such that married women would cover their hair with a cloth ("Medieval Gender" n. p). As such, women’s fashion during the medieval period was relatively non-descript and bland. Clothing was usually draped fabric that was mostly buggy and ordinary colored.
Man’s View of Sin and Human Suffering in Medieval Times
During the medieval times, man viewed sin and human suffering as omnipresent, whereby sin was a matter of individual guilt and not necessarily communal shame, with human suffering being viewed as consequences of sin. During the medieval period, man viewed sin as omnipresent and always dangerous (Steele 2). Sins were seen as always present and somehow unavoidable. They were a matter of individual guilt even when the sins would affect the community. This is because during the medieval period, emphasis of sin was more on the individual who committed as sin but not the community it may damage.
During this period, sin was closely linked to wealth. For instance, the clergy would see it as a sin to deny the church wealth while on the other hand the wealth itself would draw the clergy to sin (Steele 2). This is because wealth would tempt the clergy to sin. When a clergyman would give in to the temptations of wealth, the church would be damaged. However, concern would be more on the individual clergy who sins and not the church as whole. In this medieval thinking of sin, the clergymen who would still from the church would be punished not necessarily by an avenging saint but demons that had drawn them to hell.
During the medieval period, there was a shift of what was perceived as the cause of sin. Sinners were viewed as sinning as a result of making conscious decisions that would oppose the ways of the church (Steele 2). For instance, a person who would plough the fields of a church would do so deliberately with knowledge that he or she deifies the Church. However, as...