Roles of Women in the Middle Ages

      Women were expected to stay at home and take care of the family in the Middle Ages. They were not allowed to be educated or work. Their primary responsibility was to be a care taker. It was like a restraint put on women because they were not allowed to be who they are. Man was the head of society and they had to obey.
      Women were depicted doing labor in the Middle Ages. "Our knowledge about the daily lives and customs of women in the Middle Ages owes much to representations emphasizing their labor, as in a thirteenth-century manuscript illumination of woman milking a cow. Similar scenes - carved onto the capitals of Romanesque and Gothic churches, embroidered into tapestries, and painted with jewel-like precision in the sacred imagery of the Virgin Mary and Child that dominates medieval visual culture. Whether laboring in the service of God or for daily subsistence, the lives of most medieval men and women were organized around work (Chadwick, 43)." Women actually did the labor that was depicted in these artworks. The Church set the gender roles. "The Church's hierarchical organization reinforced the class distinctions in society; its patriarchal dogma included a full set of theories on the natural inferiority of women which can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Old Testament (Chadwick, 44)."   
      Some women were able to break free from the restraints of society, even though they were not given credit. "Although the names of a number of powerful women who were the patrons and benefactors of such representations are known today, we know little of the authors, for few of them signed their names and the preservation of their individual biographies had no role to play in their productions (Chadwick, 43)." Most women got their education through the convent. "Most art during this period was produced in monasteries. Access to education and the convent, the center of women's intellectual and artistic life from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries, was often determined by noble birth (Chadwick, 44-45)." Even though women were allowed to be educated in the convent, they were not allowed to pass on the knowledge, according to St. Paul, "a woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over a man; she should be quiet (Chadwick, 45)." 
      Sofonisba Anguissola paved a path for female artists during the Renaissance. "Sofonisba Anguissola's example opened up the possibility of painting to women as a socially acceptable profession, while her work established new conventions for self-portraiture by women and for Italian genre painting (Chadwick, 77)." Like other women, Anguissola was subjected to the criticism of her male predecessors. She gave her images life and was commended by her contemporaries. 
      The Middle Ages was a very challenging time for women who wanted to better themselves. Many obstacles were put up for them that almost made it impossible. Women like Sofonisba Anguissola were able to overcome, but was not given much respect. 

Sofonisba Anguissola Portrait of The Artist's Sisters and Brother

http://theslideprojector.com/images/art6/chapter2-therenaissanceideal/portraitoftheartistssistersandbrother.jpg

Works Cited
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.