Women During The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a movement that started in the early 16th century, inspired by the nailing of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to the doors of a church. This movement resulted in conflict and change, and eventually led to the splintering of the Protestant church from the Roman Catholic church. This led to many cultural changes as well, including how the women of the time were expected to act and serve society from the newly formed protestant perspective. The education of women during this time was very limited. Women were not allowed to attend public school. Lessons included things such as meal preparation, taking care of a household, and needlework. Basic education was allowed until a girl reached the age of 12, and then their further

The fundamental lesson of the education was that a woman’s job was to be wife and mother to her family above all else (Lambert).
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It was believed that there was no place for brilliant women such as Catherine of Siena or
Hildegard of Bingen. In a world where women were to belong in the home, the main staple of education for women was childcare. Women were taught the proper way to clean and manage a household, and much expectation was put on those healthy enough to have children. It was considered a blessing for those fortunate enough to have children, and mothers took much pride in their motherhood (lepg).
There was also much emphasis put on the education of obedience to one’s husband.
Marriage was the goal of a woman’s life at this time, so that she may one day have a family of her own. A woman’s job was to take care of the man of the house, as it was expected of her. It was legal for a girl to marry at the age of 12, but the majority managed to marry in their 20s. Life was very difficult for unmarried women who were known as spinsters, who often lived with relatives and worked long, hard hours to make ends

Marriage not only became a way of reproducing, as the church had previously taught, but it also was preached to be a way to find faithful companionship. However, the closing of many convents resulted in many women losing the opportunity of education, leadership, and the company of a community filled with many other women.
Even holy texts were beginning to transform into a scripture promoting a higher level of equality than before. In the Old Testament, it states that both men and women were created in
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God’s image. The apostle Paul wrote that through Jesus Christ, class and gender no longer matter. According the livinglutheran.org, “Reformer Martin Luther insisted that all Christians, not just some, share by faith in the same spiritual priesthood” (Kleinhans). This spirit of equality promoted by a central figure to the Reformation movement was key to furthering a higher quality of respect for women.
Due to a combination of factors such as the invention of the Gutenberg press in 1440, the spreading use of sectional languages throughout Europe, and the education of higher class women that promoted literacy, many women now had access to read the Bible for