Section B Women

Question 1

Thesis

Answer 1

Women experienced little significant change in their positions compared with gentry and professional/merchant classes.

Question 2

Themes

Answer 2

legal status/changes (including witchcraft); economic influence; religious change.
Often linked with class/nobility/gentry as changes to ‘society’

Question 3

Women’s status derived from

Answer 3

Women’s status derived from their male relatives and economic standing. Society was patriarchal and misogynist, influenced by negative portrayals of women in the Bible. Medical theories supported the biblical view that women were inferior.

Question 4

revolutionary years 1640-1660

Answer 4

The revolutionary years from 1640-60 provided the most opportunities for women to change their status from accepted norms, mainly through management of estates, preaching, publishing and petitioning.

Question 5

Mary Bankes

Answer 5

Mary Bankes defended Corfe Castle against a three-year Parliamentarian siege, whilst her husband was fighting.

Question 6

Brilliana Harley

Answer 6

Brilliana Harley, in the absence of her husband and sons, defended her home during a three-month siege by Royalist troops until they withdrew because they were needed at elsewhere. She then compelled her tenants to level the Royalist siege earthworks. She also dispatched 40 troops to raid a local Royalist camp.

Question 7

Lucy Hutchinson

Answer 7

Lucy Hutchinson ran her Royalist husband’s estates during the civil war.

Question 8

Bridget Bendish

Answer 8

After the Restoration Bridget Bendish (daughter of Henry Ireton) ran a saltpan and refinery in East Anglia in the 1660s.

Question 9

Number of women prophets in 1640/50s

Answer 9

There were 300 women prophets in 1640s and 1650s

Question 10

release of John Lilburne

Answer 10

The 1643 women’s petition for peace and food and Elizabeth Lilburne and Katherine Chidley led a petition in 1649 to release John Lilburne which was signed by 10,000 people.

Question 11

Witchcraft

Answer 11

Witchcraft was a barrier that faced many women and barred many from gaining respect and their rights within society. Accusations increased during the mid-17th century during the civil war due to loss of control of law and order by county JPs. By the end of the century accusations of witchcraft reduced and the 1735 Witchcraft Act reduced false allegations.

Question 12

Legal changes

Answer 12

Legal changes were limited, but did happen: The Toleration Act of 1650 encouraged the growth of radical religious beliefs which in turn gave women more involvement in education and preaching, the Marriage Act of 1653 made civil marriage outside of the church possible, but the Adultery Act of 1650 was a step backwards as women were more often prosecuted, and more harshly.