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Women's Roles In The Middle Ages Research Paper

882 Words4 Pages

Women’s Roles In The Middle Ages During medieval times, women’s lives varied greatly and they had multiple different roles they could play in life. Women today have many more options than they did back then, but even so, not all women in the Middle Ages were like they are shown in the movies. They are often portrayed as obedient wives whose only jobs were to care for the children and keep up the household, but that was not always the case. Although women did not have much say in what they did, the different paths in life that they were born into, married into, or chose were very different. The most common roles women in the Middle Ages played were in the classic (?) household, in power, or in the church. Most women in the Middle Ages were expected to get …show more content…

It was fairly common for women to have power in the church, as an abbess of a convent. These women had seniority over both nuns and monks, which was unique for a woman to have power over a man. Being an abbess was a great responsibility, and it was just one way that women held positions of power (Bovey 5). Outside of church walls, women could also wield political power. Often times, women were queens or regents who exercised royal power on behalf of underage sons or absent kings (Bovey 6). In Germanic societies, it was common for a king and queen to be crowned separately, and to have solely a political marriage. Sometimes, when a foreign king conquered a country, he would kill the king of that country and marry his queen to enforce his power (Hopkins 23). Women from noble or royal families were much better off than women from ordinary backgrounds. Most likely, they led much more enjoyable lives with more luxuries, more free time, more food, and less work. They probably had more advantages and opportunities because of their status, and had access to wealth, culture, education, and better health care (Hopkins

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