The Role of Women: Middle Ages - 19th Century

The expected role of women, I would like to say is forever changing and shifting in society, however, this is not necessarily true and true change has only really happened in the last century. The expected role of women has been stagnant for a very long time. There is a long history of oppression, for women and it becomes especially layered when we try and research those who were and are women of color. So, a natural question that might come from this dialogue is: How much has it changed and how was it way back in the day? The roles of women and the place they held in a society deeply influenced their work, including their art which in turn shapes our history in ways we do not even realize. If we start back in the middle ages and make our way through the timeline into the 19th century, we can begin to understand a lot about women suffrage, and contemporary issues that affect us today.  

In the middle ages, the structure of society was feudalism where we see the church become the most important establishment become an extremely powerful force. In this system, there was royalty, nobility, and peasantry, and this classification would dictate much of your life. During this time, your class dictated your life a lot more than if you were a woman or a man. As stated in Chadwick, “…women had more in common with the men in their class than with peasant women” (44). During the medieval ages, if you were a peasant you pretty much had to be hands-on in whatever task at hand. Mostly all women worked during the time in one way or another. However, even if peasant women could participate, or in better terms, had to participate in a lot of the “peasantry work”, there were still restrictions on women. For example, women could not own or inherit property and were pretty much subject to whatever male figure they had in their life. Women were idealized in terms of purity, i.e. chastity which makes sense since the church was so present during that time.  Something key to knowing for the medieval times is that women were not allowed to receive an education, in turn, convents. This allowed women the right to receive an education and practice art in any form they sought after. As in most cases, women were not recognized for the work they put into the art of the time. For example, the Bayeux Tapestry, was worked on by women. However, they all remain unnamed, and instead, people focus on the mastermind behind the painting instead of the amazing embroiders who actually executed this tapestry. 

The Bayeux Tapestry (link).

Women during this time were supposed to be shushed, and submissive, sit pretty and listen and not be outspoken as such our case with Christine de Pizan a nun who was very vocal and in her piece The City of Ladies,  depicts a city entirely made of amazing women, examples of Her work like this got her exiled. 

Christine de Pizan The City of Ladies, 1405.

As Keith Kopka describes in her article linked here, the ladies “embrace[s] her own feminine voice by diminishing the influence of the patriarchal dominance that was prominent in all facets of their social existence”. Pizan was being progressive through her art however, she was perceived as a threat to the patriarchy and thus was exiled for her radical work. This shows us the pushback women received when vocal and how because of this they could either break their class barrier become a nun and get an education and be able to work on art or succumb to their daily life duties.

The role of women begins to shift in the renaissance with the withdrawal of feudalism and the emergence of mercantilism. In feudalism, women had been able to work (whether this was pleasant work or not and if or not they enjoyed it). The emergence of this new system at the time meant a different social/economic life. The boundaries between royalty, nobility and the lower class were crossed more easily now that there were interaction and selling taking place. During this period, a woman's life can be argued to have become more constrained than in the middle ages. While women were still under the influence, or in other words controlled by their present male figures, i.e. brother, father, husband, they were thought as basically their to serve men and became their property. A man could receive an education whereas a woman could not. A special exception being the city of Bologna. There were cases of women who were able to paint under their father or husbands and thus were able to dive into art in that way. 

However, because of this their work was not always recognized, and in fact, much work attributed to men has been said to also have been worked on by women. For example, Elisabetta Sirani was accused of signing work done by her father (Guerilla Girls 30).

In the following artwork, we have Susanna and the Elders, 1610 by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Artemisia Gentileschi Susanna and the Elders, 1610.

I think this work is amazing in terms of the way it depicts the role women had at the time. Women were there for men to view, and in the paintings of the time male gaze was prominent. However here we are presented with Susanna uncomfortable looking away, while two men are over her, dominating her, evidently about to rape her. It shows how truly awful it could be to be a woman at the time and how they really had no say in a lot of what was going on around them. They were there in order to be a mother and a wife and that is it. Their life was that of a service to a man.

 As we look at the 19th century, there are still many constraints on women. There is that distinction between private and public spaces, and women cannot be out in public spaces if not accompanied by a man. Especially towards the late 19th century, however, things began to change for the better and there are important movements, where we have for example the, “separate but equal sphere” where there were women in the academies. Women begin to paint what was available to them, domestic scenes instead of historical figures. Very towards the ends of the late 19th century, We, have the emergence of the new woman, who smokes and drinks and lives a healthy athletic life something never seen before. We see resemblances of movements today, and the push for a new mindset and a new lifestyle. 

For example, we have Mary Cassat painting Women in Black at the Opera, 1880. This painting starts an interesting dialogue at the time. While women were not allowed in public spaces unaccompanied, but this woman is at the opera, very intently looking at something and in the back a man looking at her. This is an interesting play on the gaze, but it also introduces us to a woman enjoying what was not for her to enjoy on her own, independently. This represents very well the emergence of the new woman. 

Mary Cassatt Woman in Black at the Opera, 1880.

Throughout all of this we can see how from the middle ages to the 19th century, there were many shifts in life, but in terms of the lives and roles of women not much changed over those time periods. Towards the end of the timeline, we see some break in the pattern. However what stays consistent is that in all periods there was always resistance towards this way of life, and treatment towards women and female artists portrayed this in their work. In the end, the art becomes an emotional release, a political statement and ultimately history.

                                               Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016.

Kopka, Keith. “Christine De Pizan and Emily Dickinson: Feminine Power Through Textual Production.” Berfrois, 3 July 2017, https://www.berfrois.com/2017/07/keith-kopka-on-christine-de-pizan-and-emily-dickinson/.

The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.