Gender Roles, Subject and Power

              In today’s society, women are able to do things that they would not be able to do a 100 years ago. Now, women are able to create their own destiny and choose what they want to do as their career and have the ability to express themselves more freely. In the 19^th century however, things were a little different. Women weren’t given the same opportunities that they are given now. In her text, Whitney Chadwick states that “While women's social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity, by the demands of maternal and domestic responsibility, and by the feudal legal system organized around the control of property, there is evidence that their lives, as those of men, were also shaped by economic and social forces outside ecclesiastic control, at least during the period of the early Middle Ages. Women's lives do not appear to have been privatized and their social functions subordinated to, or defined by, their sexual capacities” (Chadwick, 44). The Christian Church was a major influence during the middle ages. It organized communication, culture, religion, and even education, as it was the dominant force in Western medieval life. Women were always looked at as inferior to men, and their roles in society depicted that as well. They were always looked at as second fiddle. If a woman was married, she would have to stay at home and take care of the kids, or help their husbands with their work. They didn’t have much of a choice. If you were born into a rich family or a family of a higher class, only then were you allowed to have an education. Chadwick goes on to say that “Within the convent women had access to learning even though they were prohibited from teaching by St. Paul’s caution that “a woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over a man; she should be quiet” (Chadwick, 45). The last sentence sums up and shows how women were treated in the Middle Ages. Men were looked at as the superior race and women were told to be quite and observe. It emphasized the authority men had over women and showed how women were forbidden to teach, all they could do was learn in silence.

           

            Roles for women began to change throughout the Renaissance. In Guerilla Girls, it states “Everyone assumes that art in the Renaissance was an all-guys’ game. Hold on to your seats, because that just isn’t true” (Guerilla Girls, 29). Although women who were born into a family of artists had a higher opportunity work as an artist, they took full advantage of it and paved the way for other female artists. The one exception to this was Sofonisba Anguissola. “One of the few ways a woman could work as an artist was to be born into a family of artists that needed assistance in the family workshop. A rare exception to this was Sofonisba Anguissola, a noble whose father believed women should be educated. He sent one of her drawings to Michelangelo…Some of these women, including those who follow, figured out how to establish themselves as independent artists” (Guerilla Girls, 29). This influenced the lives of other women because it went to show that you didn’t necessarily have to grow up in a family of artists in order to pursue art. This gave women hope that they can to overcome obstacles that society throws there way. Chadwick further expands on this point by saying that “Sofonisba Anguissola's example opened up the possibility of painting to women as a socially acceptable profession, while her work established new conventions for self-portraiture by women and for Italian genre painting” (Chadwick, 77). All they needed was for someone to pave the way for them and it would result in a sign of hope and confidence that they can become artists if they wanted too.

This image shows a woman looking down in disappointment as her art work is judged by a man. 

            In the words of Bell Hooks, Patriarchy is defined as “a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence” (Hooks, 18). Males held the authority and primary power over females in the middle ages, but things sort of began to take a turn throughout the Renaissance and into the 19C. Women were looked at as inferior to men and Sofonisba Anguissola’s story helped change that. She was one of the main female artists to help overcome some of the challenges that women faced, such as patriarchy and lack of opportunities for women. Women were slowly starting to get the recognition that they deserve, and it was a beautiful sight to see.

This image shows a woman looking straight ahead giving no expression whatsoever, as if she were an object.

The image shows a woman vulnerable and frightened while two men are looming in her direction.

Links:

Women in the Middle Ages

Renaissance

Gender Roles

References:

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

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

3.     Hooks, Bell. “Understanding Patriarchy”. The Will to Change. New York: Atria Books, 2004. 17-33. Print.