It is increasingly clear that we retain countless topics from the Middle Ages, largely inherited from the “anti-medieval” discourse that arose in the Enlightenment. Indeed; In their fierce fight against the Ancien Regime, the “centuries of reason” indiscriminately attacked every hint of “medievality”, ignoring, by the way, that the Middle Ages had little or nothing to do with that Ancien Regime that they so reviled.
The case of the woman is one of the many examples of this enlightened mythification. Because, although it is true that the Middle Ages was a time characterized by strong misogyny, it is no less true that the situation of women worsened drastically in the following centuries, to become, in the middle of the 19th century and part of the 20th, the mere “angel of the home” spoken of in Victorian texts.
What, then, was the situation of medieval women? What was your life like? What were the concepts of women in the Middle Ages? In this article we briefly review its social, political, economic and human reality in the most objective way possible and away from the topics that tend to accompany this topic.
Christine de Pizan (1364-1431) wrote, as early as 1405, what is considered by many to be one of the proto-feminist manifestos in history. The book, titled The city of ladiesconstitutes a strong plea in defense of women in which Christine exposes the examples of various historical and biblical women with the aim of demonstrating that women are not, in any case, the “weaker sex” that the clerics and learned men of their time tried to attack.
If the writer was morally obliged to make such an allegation, it is because, in fact, in the 15th century an idea of women and the feminine based on denigration and contempt prevailed. Specifically, the last straw for Christine’s patience was the publication of the Roman de la rose, a true medieval best-seller in which the woman did not exactly come out well. However, was it always like this? And, above all, were there really no other visions of women in the Middle Ages?
The Manichean concept of women in the Middle Ages
According to the Scriptures, the person responsible for the fall of man (and we say well, of man, in masculine terms) was Eve, the mother of humanity. From then on, all her daughters carry the original sin within them, which turns women into “despicable” beings lacking any moral and spiritual virtue.
However, the Middle Ages is a time of very sharp contrasts. Because next to the figure of the sinner we find Mary, the mother of God, the virginal figure par excellence who, with her purity, redeems the woman from her stain and elevates her condition to the altars. Then the fall occurs through a woman, but so does the redemption.
The “new Eve”
Some medieval authors saw precisely in the name of Eve the anagram of Ave, the beginning of the greeting that the archangel Gabriel makes to Mary. In this way, women acquired a very pronounced dichotomy in the Middle Ages in which there was no room for half measures: on the one hand, the diabolical woman who incited man to sin; on the other, the heavenly woman, touched by the hand of God and blessed with the fruit of her womb; that is, God himself.
It is precisely this condition of Mary as savior of humanity (and of women specifically) that spurs a rather hackneyed debate in the Middle Ages, which will not see a solution until contemporary times: it is the question of whether the Virgin was born or not with the stain of original sin. As the daughter of Eve (like all other women) she had to be like this, but how can it be justified that the woman who gives birth to Christ carries such a blemish within herself?
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, established many centuries after the appearance of the first debates, will close the matter. But while, During the medieval period, society will move between an absolutely dualistic conception of women ; a conception that places her either on the highest pedestal (reflected, on the other hand, in courtly love and blind adoration of the female figure as a knight’s blessing) or in the most infernal of abysses. Mary and Eve, Eve and Mary; a dichotomy that will persist in modern times and that even today, in the 21st century, is still present in many of the concepts that still remain in society.
The gradual “misogynization” of medieval society
While it is true that we find the Manichean idea of Eve/Mary already at the dawn of Christianity, it is no less true that medieval society experienced a gradual “misogynization” as the centuries progressed. That is to say, the society of the late Middle Ages is much more misogynistic than that of the first centuries of the period. This is due, in part, to the arrival of Aristotle’s philosophy to Europe, at the hands of Arab commentators and translators
The patent misogyny of clerics and learned men found its perfect justification with the expansion of the works of the Greek philosopher, since they found in them the ideal explanation for the supposed female “inferiority.” Aristotle spoke of women as “frustrated males”; that is, a pregnancy that, in principle, should produce a man and that, due to natural circumstances, ended up producing a woman as fruit. Among some of these “adverse circumstances”, the philosopher presents the corruption of semen or the humidity of the uterus as factors that interfere with the correct development of the male.
Thus, the arrival of Aristotle was the definitive blow to the status of women, a decline that materialized in the modern age, when their social status definitively declined. Therefore, It is wrong to believe that women enjoyed less consideration in the Middle Ages than in later periods ; rather it was exactly the other way around. During the medieval period, women had certain privileges that definitively disappeared in the 17th century, a time in which the masculinization of society (driven in part by commercialization and the rise of the figure of the bourgeois, on the one hand, and by the recovery of Roman law, on the other), relegated women to the role of mother, wife and guardian of the home.
The working woman in the Middle Ages
Do we mean by this that, in the Middle Ages, women had more freedoms than in modern times? Partly yes, of course. This is one of the myths we talked about in the introduction, that medieval women lived absolutely secluded and far from society. Nothing is further from reality.
Especially after the rise of the towns in the 11th century, women began to gain a presence in the economy The wives and daughters of the bourgeois participate in the businesses of their husbands and fathers; It is not at all uncommon to see women belonging to the artisan’s family collaborating in the production of the pieces in guild workshops.
On the other hand, it was not unusual to find women who took charge of the family businesses in case of the husband’s absence, and some even actively participated in fairs and commercial dealings. Nothing to do, as we can see, with the situation of women in the 18th and 19th centuries, where her place is almost exclusively in the home, taking care of the children and the house.
A special case: medieval prostitution
Although prostitution has always been seen as a social evil, in the Middle Ages this activity enjoyed a permissiveness that is practically non-existent in contemporary times. For a start, There were many clerics who considered that, if a woman committed carnal acts for money, she was not committing lust, one of the capital sins. Not only that; Many of them maintained that it was lawful for women to receive financial compensation for her “work.”
Of course, this vision did not contemplate the reality of prostitution. Many women were forcibly forced to become prostitutes, either due to extreme poverty or because they found themselves alone in the world, at the mercy of panderers and pimps. However, clandestine prostitutes had it much worse, that is, those who did not work in premises regulated by the authorities, who were thus exposed to violence and abuse.
In medieval society two types of prostitution can be clearly distinguished: the “official” and the clandestine The second is explained with its own name; Apart from the authorities, these women worked on the streets, in taverns or in public baths, which led the authorities to constantly inspect these types of establishments.
“Official” prostitutes were registered in official censuses, lived and “worked” in premises provided by the authorities, paid taxes and enjoyed rigid regularization. Furthermore, these types of prostitutes were protected by the authorities, so in case of abuse, they could turn to them for help.
The legal situation of women: an eternal minor
The incursion of women into the world of work contrasts enormously with the legal situation of medieval women. Because, although it is true that in each region there were specific laws in this regard that may vary from one another, in general we can say that women were considered a kind of “eternal minor.” Although women could bring lawsuits to court to claim their assets (as Christine de Pizan herself did after the death of her husband), on the other hand They were linked to the male figure, whether it was the father, the husband or the son and their “subordinate” status did not leave them much room to maneuver.
Marriage, widowhood and children
In the splendid essay by Roberto José González Zalacain, collected within Women in the Middle Ages (see bibliography) we find a summary of the legal situation of women in matters of property. The key moment was, of course, marriage (the woman’s only way out, apart from the convent), where a new family cell began that had to have financial resources to survive. In this sense, the woman’s family provided her dowry, while the husband made the deposits, much less substantial and often only voluntary, available to the new family.
Without a dowry, it was impossible for a woman to marry. The dowry was necessary even to give one’s life to God, and there were many women who, in their will, left a certain amount to poor relatives to ensure them a good marriage. In this sense, the documents attest to the enormous solidarity that existed among medieval women, who helped each other, perhaps aware of belonging to a group with their own specific life difficulties.
Male superiority is clearly reflected in property laws If the husband died, it was necessary that, in his will, he name his wife as heir; Otherwise, she only obtained the usufruct of the assets, which passed to her heir. In any case, even if her last wishes were recorded in this regard, the woman always had to go to court to claim what, by right, belonged to her. On the other hand, in general, a woman could not become guardian of minor children in the event of widowhood, due to the consideration that her sex was held as “beings without virtue, reason or morality.” The tutorship passed, therefore, to a male relative; In general, it was the father himself who assigned the name in the will.
We have said that the medieval woman only had two paths: marriage or the convent. These two realities were a reflection of the medieval dichotomy that very strictly differentiated earthly and spiritual life, and both were valid insofar as they distanced women from the ghost of Eve. Female sexuality, therefore, was either annulled (in the form of virginity given to God) or strictly limited to the marital bond.
Anything else was out of bounds. Thus, within these borders, medieval women tried to free themselves from the yoke imposed on their sex. We have already commented how the wives and daughters of merchants and artisans collaborated in the family economy, and even took the reins of the business in the absence of the male figure.
On the other hand, Noble ladies served as authentic feudal lords, not only in the absence of their husbands, but also in their own right, well remember that there were quite a few noble women who held kingdoms, counties and lordships. The myth that presents the Medieval woman patiently and resignedly waiting for the return of her husband is false. Eleanor of Aquitaine, for example, was the legitimate duchess of her fiefdom, and she toured her estates tirelessly, like a true feudal lord. This political, social and economic activity is unthinkable in later times, where the figure of the queen or lady is relegated to a mere wife of the king, guarantor of the legitimate succession.
Among the powerful women of the Middle Ages we also find, of course, the abbesses. Women who devoted themselves to monastic existence undoubtedly had innumerable advantages; To begin with, they were spared a premature death as a result of childbirth and, to continue, they had access to a series of freedoms and knowledge that were unthinkable for women of other classes. The figure of Heloísa d’Argenteuil, abbess and scholar, serves as a magnificent example in this regard.
Conclusions
The topic of the situation of women in the Middle Ages is something complex that cannot be covered in a few pages. However, we hope to have sketched an adequate portrait that reflects, at least, its essence.
Although medieval women are still subject to the theological concept of “sinner” and “inciter of sin” and, therefore, it is considered essential that they be subordinate to men, we find in this period very powerful female figures who enjoyed freedom and status. hardly found in later times. The medieval woman was not only the pillar of the house, but also the man’s companion in commercial and political activities and often had her own rights in this regard, like the powerful Eleanor or the equally powerful abbesses. On the other hand, it is necessary to emphasize the gradual advance of misogyny, which became much more evident from the 13th century (with the arrival of Aristotle’s work) and which lasted well into the 20th century. Or even beyond.
