Renaissance• Gained education, but
limited in public affairs
• Young upperclass women marry older upperclass men
• Lower classes wait to marry, but pregnancy resulted in marriage until around 1750
• Some upperclass women contributed to Humanism:
• Christine de Pizan, Laura Cereta, Isabella d'Este
Reformation•Women & girls taught to read Bible•Protestants allow clergy to marry•Anabaptists allow women to preach•New orders for Catholics nuns: Ursulines (education), St. Teresa of Avila & Carmelites•Accusations of Witchcraft rise
Enlightenment• Madame Geoffrin & Madame Necker – salon hostesses
• Enlightened thinkers & Scientists looked down on women and marginalized their abilities but…
• Accusations of Witchcraft die out due to rise of Science and Enlightenment
French Revolution• Marie Antoinette – Austrian
princess & Fr. Queen• Women's March on Versailles• Olympe de Gouges – Dec. of Rights
of Women• Mary Wollstonecraft – Vindication
of Rights • Gains are limited during Fr. Rev.
and reversed by Napoleon
1st Half of 19th Century• Illegitimacy boom from 1750-1850, Foundling Homes
• Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters, Mary Shelly, George SandNovelists commenting on social limits for women
• Flora Tristan – Feminist & Socialist• (John Stuart Mill) – Defender of women’s rights
• Marriages still often arranged but concept of marrying for love more common
2nd Half of 19th Century• Queen Victoria rules for 50 years! Victorian Ideal, separate spheres, strict moral code for women
• Ibsen's A Doll's House critical of marriage role
• Florence Nightingale – Crimean War & Red Cross
• Marie Curie – Scientist, Radioactivity• Emmeline Pankhurst – achieve right to own property, divorce, but no women’s suffrage
1st Half of 20th Century• WWI women support war effort (Total
War)• Russian Rev. – women granted legal
equalityCommunist women work, esp. as doctors
• Suffrage Granted Post WWI to rest of European women
• Fascists encouraged large families• WWII women again support war effort• Postwar Baby boom