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 Elizabeths 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 werent 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 couldnt 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