Patriarchy In Early Modern Europe

EARLY MODERN EUROPE' NOTION ABOUT WOMEN

In order to understand the position of women in Early Modern Europe, firstly we need to understand the society of this period. The society took place in Early Modern Europe was the patriarchy. How was the patriarchy? Patriarchy can be defined as a system which putting women in vassal position so as to put across the hierarchy and authority of men in an unquestioned way. The ideology which creates these kinds of policies largely based on how the family should be managed more precisely on how the father should manage it and how women should be, in the sixteenth century. On the other hand, these ideas were not produced in the family; although their relationships with family are reflected in the family,

As Simone de Beauvoir said that '' one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman''. As we can see, in this periods, male-dominated authorities rendered/defined women in a way how they want for their own interests. Briefly, women were defined/created by men rather than nature which in turn creates a critical question that is what was the women in Early Modern Europe? Wives, mother, daughter, sister; nun, heretic, saint, witch, bitch; queen, martyr, seeker and so forth. Firstly, what was the women, in particular, in the eyes of husbands and fathers in the family? In early modern Europe, many people believe in that, the most appropriate place for women was the family which gives them certain responsibilities like obedient daughters, wives, and widows. Many books and theories included that women should marry and constitute their own family. These kinds of thoughts were strengthened by medical assessment about '' the biological nature of women, who were thought to be at risk of severe physical and mental illness if they did not engage in regular sexual relations.'' General belief in that time was that women were sexually more greedy, which came in sight in ribald

As Richard Steele tried to define women, he said that '' a woman is a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, a mere appendage of the human race…'' Here as we can see, a woman from the moment that she was born, not as she was, regardless of social background, were defined by her relationship with a man. She was respectively under the responsibility of her father and her husband, so women should honor both of them and must obey both. During the marriage process, the contribution of women was very significant in terms of the construction of new family. This implementation was applied in the upper and middle classes of the society throughout the early modern period in a rigid way. Families from these groups do prenuptial agreements for their children because at that time the marriage was not just a decision of the two people, it was decided collectively. Its most important reason was to find families of similar status for dowries which come from girl's side because these dowries were the most important guarantee for both girl and boy's side in terms of constructing and enhancing families' status. In this such cases, the dependence of women to ones was also discussed among the families. This