Women during the Renaissance, their primary job was to be a housewife. They were responsible for work around the house. They also worked in field alongside husbands. They mostly helped out the men or took some of the responsibilities, such as helping work in businesses that husbands owned. The women basically ran the home. They would marry men in their thirties while they were in their mid to late teens. This would cause them to be widowed at a younger age because of the age difference. Even the women of the highest class still cooked, cleaned, sewed, entertained, and more. The women had to cook the best of meals for their family and husbands. Unmarried women were not allowed to own property or live by themselves, they lived with male relative.
The ideal Renaissance women had many different types of characteristics. The ideal Renaissance women would own distinctive qualities. She would have to compliment a man. The ideal women had to also be well educated, such as educated in liberal arts. She would have no part in public life, only supposed to charm the household. In Italy, women of the lower classes had better visible presence in the streets than upper class women. Noble women would have longhair. Their hair was curled and in locks down to their shoulders. These women were to wear a collarless floor length silk sottana. This clothing would be fitted to their bodies.
Women were usually Nuns. Being a Nun was the only career that women had access to. They lived off providing gold and silver thread. They would often sell it to secular women which used it in their embroidery. Nuns who had no children would provide schooling to privileged girls. Nuns also had to bring dowries to ensure that their convents would keep on running smoothly and be able to house them and feed them. Women also provided breast milk to babies. Some concerns that come from the women when they breast fed was based on religion. When breast feeding, Catholic babies could not consume Protestant women breast milk and Protestant babies could not consume Catholic women breast milk. In Italy most of the women from the upper classes had only two options in their life, and that was to either marry or the cloister.
Women had no political rights. They were controlled by their parents throughout their childhood then later handed to their husbands. When they get married they are under their husband's control until one of them dies. Even if they marry Jesus or a mortal man they still needed a dowry. A dowry is property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. Only women of the qAhighest class had the chance to show their position is society. Not a lot written about women, even the richest and most powerful. Women of the upper classes were not allowed to or supposed to work outside the home. Even breast feeding was considered a job for a lower class woman. Babies from a wealthy family were sent to wet nurses.
A very well known or the best example of an ideal Renaissance women was Isabella d’Este. Isabella d’Este was very powerful and was a well-educated political figure, humanitarian, patron of the arts, and a mother of seven children. She was also known as The First Lady of the Renaissance. She was related to almost every ruler in Italy. A famous quote from another famous woman during the Renaissance, Marguerite de Navarre, "People pretend not to like grapes when the vines are too high for them to reach", this is saying that people pretend to not like something if they cannot do it. Isabella d'Este was born in 1474 to a ruling family of Ferra. When she was sixteen she got married to Francesco Gonzaga. She later became the Marchioness of Mantua because Francesco Gonzaga became the prince. By the age of sixteen she was also able to speak Greek and Latin. She also had talents such as being able to play the lute, she could sing, dance, and debate with people who are older than her.
MLA Format Sources
Victoria and Albert Museum, Digital Media Webmaster@vam.ac.uk. "Women in the Renaissance." Victoria and Albert Museum, Digital Media Webmaster@vam.ac.uk. Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL. Telephone 44 (0)20 7942 2000. Email Vanda@vam.ac.uk, 15 July 2014. Web. 16 May 2017.
"Renaissance Women Isabella D'Este." Renaissance Women. Web. 16 May 2017.
Brown, Meg Lota., and Kari Boyd. McBride. Women's Roles in the Renaissance. Westport: Greenwood, 2005. Print.
"Women." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students, edited by Paul F. Grendler, vol. 4, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004, pp. 174-180. Gale Virtual Reference Library, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?