Gender
While men dominated society throughout Early Modern Europe, influential women, from queens to peasants, are often overlooked. From the persecution of women during witch trials to Catherine de’ Medici during the Bartholemew’s Day Massacre to salons during the Enlightenment, women found ways to work past the limitations placed on them and create change in society.
Throughout the Early Modern era, rural and specifically agricultural communities were heavily patriarchal. Women did not have power in how rural villages were run politically, “though they did buy, sell, and hold land independently.” (Wiesner-Hanks, 219). Society was hierarchically organized by wealth and by gender, and just as wealth separated peasants from nobles, gender impacted a person’s rights.
In urban settings, textile manufacturing was the most common way for women to earn money. Specifically during the 17th and 18th centuries, women were primarily involved in jobs such as spinning. Approximately two-thirds of those making consumer luxury goods in Paris were women, despite typically not owning the workshops (Wiesner-Hanks, 496). Craft guilds were common at the time, and while few guilds admitted women, several women’s guilds existed, such as the women-only dressmakers guild in Paris. Despite the limitations, women involved themselves in urban industries.
Queens were among the few women in Early Modern Europe who lived largely outside of patriarchal constraints. Women such as Catherine de’ Medici, Elizabeth I, and Isabella of Castile influenced regional and international politics. Outside of the monarchy, women worked their way into academic circles, and women became increasingly involved in political and literary discourses during the Enlightenment. Throughout Early Modern Europe, women found avenues to involve themselves in different facets of society despite the constraints placed upon them by patriarchal societal structures.
Written by Mallory Atack
Marie Thérèse Geoffrin was one of France’s most prominent salonnières, or salon hosts. Salons contributed to the rise of civil society during the Enlightenment, involving everyday people in intellectual discussions. Women hosted most salons, and their approval was an “unofficial requirement” for men to enter the Académie française (Wiesner-Hanks, 389), granting a few women substantial power over an institution they otherwise did not have access to. However, Geoffrin’s power ended at her doorstep. Though Geoffrin was effective at maneuvering through a patriarchal society, the limitations she faced complicate the Enlightenment’s otherwise progressive image.
Written by Peter Marshall and revised by Mallory Atack
Mary Wollstonecraft, a prominent Enlightenment philosopher, activist, and writer, advocated for expanding women’s rights through education in her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Wiesner-Hanks, 9). Wollstonecraft was involved in various intellectual groups with other major Enlightenment figures, demonstrating that women had some access to academic circles during the Enlightenment. However, most women had few rights at this time, motivating Wollstonecraft to promote education reform as a means to expanding these rights. Overall, education was an essential facet of life to most Enlightenment thinkers. Building on “Locke’s ideas about the role of experience and the value of education,” Wollstonecraft simply utilized this ideal for the furthering of women’s rights (Wiesner-Hanks, 402).
Written and revised by Mallory Atack
Catherine de’ Medici ruled as regent for her son Charles IX. Huguenots, distrustful of her Italian Catholic background, often saw her as the “scheming power behind the throne” (Diefendorf, 33). Some held her responsible for the Bartholemew’s Day Massacre, in which thousands of Protestants were killed in a spree of furious religious conflict, though “there is sharp debate among historians about exactly who planned these killings.” (Wiesner-Hanks, 146). Catherine de’ Medici was central to Early Modern Europe, not only for the events that occurred during her and her son’s reigns, but because her regency and relation to the powerful Medici family afforded her power not accessible in other realms of this rigidly patriarchal society.
Written by Lily Petersen and revised by Mallory Atack
Massive witch hunts occurred almost exclusively in the Early Modern period (Wiesner-Hanks, 454). Hans Baldung’s 1510 print, titled “The Witches,” showcases the period’s unique blend of witchcraft beliefs and would have served to promulgate gendered associations with witchcraft. Bildung’s witches are implicated in evil-doing: One witch files off on a goat, carrying a potion. This period also saw the rise in the belief that women were more susceptible to the devil’s charms (Wiesner-Hanks, 455). The work’s alternate title, “Witches’ Sabbath,” references witches’ supposed orgies with the devil during night meetings that inverted the Christian sabbath (Wiesner-Hanks, 455).
Written and revised by Peter Marshall