Gender Roles In Late Medieval France
Gender Ways in Late Medieval France
Men’s and women’s roles in society have and continue to change throughout the centuries. In this century alone women have gained the right to vote and society’s expectations of us altered, making women working a variety of jobs common – such as being a doctor, business woman, or politician. Furthermore, the expectations of men have changed considerably as well – modern men take paternity leave upon the birth of their child and it is not unusual for the man to be the chef in a relationship. However, gender roles and expectations have clearly not always been viewed this way and continue to develop over the generations. It would be foolish to believe that we cannot learn from past genders ways in different cultures. Late medieval France had extremely different gender roles and views than we do today and through examination of them I have been able to appreciate that the way gender is expressed today is not the only way the roles can exist. By learning from the past I am …show more content…
The Book of the City of Ladies. 1405. The Selected Writings of Christine De Pizan. Trans. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Kevin Brownlee. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1997. 122-47. Print.
Christine de Pizan is regarded as one of the first women writers of Europe and spent most of her career challenging misogyny and women’s stereotypes prevalent in medieval France. Pizan uses “The Book of the City of Ladies” as a response to various misogynistic works of the Middle Ages. Because of this context, the book contains not only Pizan’s opinions and examples of strong women throughout history, but also excerpts from other works of the time such as “The Lamentations of Matheolus” and “The Romance of the Rose”.
De Pizan, Christine. The Treasury of the City of Ladies. 1405. A Medieval Woman 's Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies. Trans. Charity Cannon. Willard. Ed. Madeleine Pelner. Cosman. Tenafly, NJ: Bard Hall, 1989. 99-203.
Men’s and women’s roles in society have and continue to change throughout the centuries. In this century alone women have gained the right to vote and society’s expectations of us altered, making women working a variety of jobs common – such as being a doctor, business woman, or politician. Furthermore, the expectations of men have changed considerably as well – modern men take paternity leave upon the birth of their child and it is not unusual for the man to be the chef in a relationship. However, gender roles and expectations have clearly not always been viewed this way and continue to develop over the generations. It would be foolish to believe that we cannot learn from past genders ways in different cultures. Late medieval France had extremely different gender roles and views than we do today and through examination of them I have been able to appreciate that the way gender is expressed today is not the only way the roles can exist. By learning from the past I am …show more content…
The Book of the City of Ladies. 1405. The Selected Writings of Christine De Pizan. Trans. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Kevin Brownlee. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1997. 122-47. Print.
Christine de Pizan is regarded as one of the first women writers of Europe and spent most of her career challenging misogyny and women’s stereotypes prevalent in medieval France. Pizan uses “The Book of the City of Ladies” as a response to various misogynistic works of the Middle Ages. Because of this context, the book contains not only Pizan’s opinions and examples of strong women throughout history, but also excerpts from other works of the time such as “The Lamentations of Matheolus” and “The Romance of the Rose”.
De Pizan, Christine. The Treasury of the City of Ladies. 1405. A Medieval Woman 's Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies. Trans. Charity Cannon. Willard. Ed. Madeleine Pelner. Cosman. Tenafly, NJ: Bard Hall, 1989. 99-203.