Role of Women in the Elizabethan Age

1. Role of Women in the Elizabethan Age By Rebecca Agle

2. Daily Tasks of the common women • Women had to cook and clean the house and take care of the children. They were also responsible for buying groceries and making cloth from cotton. • Women were also responsible for doing what their husbands told them to such as planning gatherings, weddings, or other celebrations.

3. Education • Women often started their education when they were around five, but they never received as good of an education as their brothers would. • Women were considered inferior to men so they were taught that their duty was in the home. • Most grown women could not even write their own signature.

4. Privileges • Women had few if any privileges. They were aloud to go to the theater with their husbands and partake in the merriment though it was still frowned upon. • Although women in Elizabethan England didn't have many privileges, they still had the most out of any country in Europe. • Women from wealthy families had more privileges than those from poor families due to the “connections” with important people.

5. Place at Festivals • Women were a major part of planning gatherings, weddings, and other various celebrations. • Women decorated events, dealt with gifts, and had a major hand in christenings and weddings.

6. Freedom • Women had many restrictions even on what they wore. They were many laws that said women could not wear such things as furs or velvet unless permitted. • Women were under their fathers control until they were married. Their marriages were always arranged to benefit both families. Once married they were under their husbands control.

7. Legal Status • Since the ruler of England throughout most of the Elizabethan Age was Queen Elizabeth herself, women were considered more important than they use to be especially in politics. • Women never had much of a say in politics even during Queen Elizabeth’s rule.

8. Free Time • Women in their free time loved to gossip, play cards, and more gossip. • Women also loved to accompany their husbands to plays.

9. Moral Standards • When a woman was proposed to it was expected of her to accept whether she wanted to or not. • Women were also suppose to be very modest about their opinions and what they wore. • Women also weren’t aloud to marry whomever they chose. They had their marriages arranged.

10. Miscellaneous • Women were thought of as weaker less intelligent beings next to men. • Women whose husband couldn’t make enough to support the family would work as servants to other families.

11. Bibliography • Davis, William S. Life in the Elizabethan Age. New York: Harper and Row, 1930. • Yancey, Diane. Life in the Elizabethan Theater. San Diego, CA: Lucent books, 1997