Females were able to speak their minds but their thoughts and ideas were shaped by men. Mostly everything women did had input given by men. Women were controlled by their parents from the day they are born until the day they are married, and then they would be handed directly to their husbands so they could take over that role. In the time of the renaissance women were considered to legally belong to their husbands. Women were supposed to be typical ‘housewives.’ If a woman did not conform to their husband she would be called a shrew. This is considered to be the beginning of contemporary times.
The Taming of the Shrew is a play written by William Shakespeare. In this play the main character is Katherine, she is the Shrew as mentioned in the title. A shrew is a woman who is very outspoken. The word Shrew is very negative word when relating to women. In the time of the Renaissance, people looked down on women referred to as a shrew. These women were very open about expressing anything they wanted to. In this time period, an outspoken woman was unheard of. People strongly disapproved of women like this in the renaissance. Men were the only people aloud to be outspoken and expressive.
Katherine is a shrew of the worst degree. Sometimes her words and actions are extremely violent. She was a very abusive woman. There was a strong sense of disapproval from everyone about Katherine. No one wanted to be given the job of ‘taming’ her. That is until Petruchio comes along and decides he will do the task in order to marry into her fortune. In this time, the renaissance, women are to be seen and not heard. The ideal woman is quiet and respectful. She has no problem being controlled by a man. She enjoys the attention she gets from men for being a dainty female. This ideal woman is Katherine’s sisters Bianca. Shakespeare decided to have two characters contrast such a great deal. It shows the reader how different the two types really are. Katherine, compared to Bianca, seems like a crazy woman.
In Taming of the Shrew, men pine after Bianca for her beauty and her dowry. She is soft spoken and sweet. Katherine is just the opposite. She is forward and loud strong willed. Men do not want Katherine. They are frightened of her.
In Ancient Greece, Athenian women were given no education and were married at puberty to grown men. They remained forever the property of their fathers, who could divorce them and make them marry another. They lived in segregation and could not leave the house without a chaperone. They could not buy or sell land. If one were raped her husband had either to divorce her or lose his citizenship. A raped woman was no longer allowed to wear jewels or take part in public ceremonies.
Under Roman law the power of the husband was absolute; he could chastise his wife even - until the later Roman period - to the point of killing her.
In the 12th to 13th century men used an iron girdle, or ‘chastity belt’ to ensure their wives were faithful.
Marriages were often arranged when the girls were only three or four years old. The law stated at the time that a girl as young as seven was capable of consenting to marriage. However, the marriage could not be consummated until the girl was 12 years old. In the 14th century courts were unwilling to convict rapists when the victim was pregnant. It was generally believed that her pregnancy signaled God’s approval of the marriage.
During the Renaissance women lost even more of what little economic power they had, because men increasingly went out of the home to work in all-male professions, hence separating home and work, leaving women behind, working unpaid in the home.
The church was extremely powerful and religious fundamentalism dominated every aspect of life in Britain to a degree that people of today often find hard to imagine. Girls continued to be indoctrinated from birth they were the instruments of the devil – who lured men away from God and into sin. People believed that Adam was created first, and then Eve was created from his body to serve and obey him. Women were inferior to men and this meant strict obedience to fathers and brothers as well as husbands. Anything else was unnatural and against God. Famous thinkers, philosophers and writers repeatedly restated women’s natural subjection to men.
Once married, a wife was trapped in total obedience and subservience to her husband. This was believed to be ordained by both God and nature, so few dared to challenge it. Her body and property were absolutely his to do with whatever he wished. If she displeased him he could legally turn her out of his house penniless or beat her mercilessly, she had no power under the law to prevent it or gain any redress. A wife had to be dedicated to serving her master in silence and bearing his children: a good wife produced as her first-born a male heir. Typically, wives were pregnant yearly, though half of all babies didn’t survive to adulthood and many women died in childbirth.
A woman who killed her husband, or a servant who killed her or his master, was guilty of petty treason and burned at the stake. This was because such crimes threatened the established social order. For all other murders the punishment was hanging.
In short, women were treated as inferior creature throughout the history. They suffered great oppression bitterly and had no choice other than grinning and bear it.