Women In Romeo And Juliet

William Shakespeare wrote the play of Romeo and Juliet in the early stages of his career. At the time England was reigned by Queen Elizabeth I. Despite the dominion of the queen, female British women were discriminated against. Women were seen as the weaker gender, both physically and mentally (Wojtczak).
However, the story of Romeo and Juliet is set in the Italian city Verona. The situation for women was even worse in Verona. It was a male-dominated city where women didn’t have independency. Much like in England, women in Verona were supposed to be protected- constrained, really- by men (Jenna).
In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare portrayed this male-dominant situation in Verona realistically. For example, Sampson, a Capulet servant says the

At the start of this tragic love story Juliet is a very youthful and innocent girl, who doesn’t seem to have given a lot of thought to marriage since she doesn’t seem to care for love. “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move” (1.3.98). Here Juliet promises her mother to see whether she likes Paris, but the way she says it suggests that she will probably not be able to tell whether she would want to marry him just by looking at him. This also shows Juliet’s disinterest in the matter.
Later that same night Juliet stumbles across Romeo at the masked ball and immediately falls in love with him. She even lets him kiss her (1.5.105-110). The fact that she allows Romeo to do this could be explained by her age. She is a young girl who doesn’t know how to handle the situation properly.
However, one could also say that this is the first time Shakespeare shows us Juliet’s potency. Regardless of her mother asking her to have a look at Paris Juliet changes her plans when she meets Romeo, thereby disobeying her mother and doing what she wants. She is being independent.
This bravery is further extended when Juliet drinks the potion she gets from Friar Lawrence, even though she is terrified that something might go extremely wrong, she still drinks it