Women and gender

Question 1

Who is famous women who had power

Answer 1

Hildegard of Bingen

Question 2

Why was Hildegard of Bingen accepted as a women in power?

Answer 2

people accepted her visions and hearing of God because she did not speak as a woman - God spoke through her, therefore she did not threaten the male order.

Question 3

What was Hildegard’s view on women?

Answer 3

• shared general view of women with scholars of the time
• saw women as frail and passive - “I am a mere woman”
• BUT did not see Eve as a temptress, gave her dignity male scholars never contemplated.

Question 4

Hildegard’s view of sex:

Answer 4

• in her science work wrote about sex without a sense of moral condemnation
• spoke about the female orgasm
• BUT theologically she praised chastity, visions of virgins in heaven.

Question 5

How were women subject to men?

Answer 5

1. men controlled access to space
2. women who broke codes limiting movement were subject to harassment
3. Order praised obedient women, saw them as vulnerable and dependent

Question 6

Difference for women in the countryside & in urban environments:

Answer 6

countryside: women seen as polluting, outside the domestic sphere they were unsafe.

urban: more progressive, mingling, tavern extended domestic sphere.

Question 7

Evidence of women exercising power:

Answer 7

1. widows of craftsmen & merchants ‘femme sole’ could be solo
2. prostitutes - escaped but invited invasion of their physical bodily space
3. Nichola de Haye - managed her own affairs after her husband widowed her

Question 8

what specific economic and social function did women hold?

Answer 8

1. working in fields (theme of risk)
2. Brewing and selling ale
3. Noble & aristocratic classes - managed estates, participated in political & military activity, organised events.
4. 1141 Countess Mabel and Stephen’s Queen Matilda - proactively involved in negotiating process - portrayed as supporting their husbands, recognition as role of peacemakers - correspondence between the two.

Question 9

Ruth Karvas on Prostitutes:

Answer 9

“there was no conceptual space in the medieval scheme of things for a sexually active single women who was not a prostitute”

Question 10

What was there contradiction about and what was this contradiction?

Answer 10

marriage

sin/justifiable in terms of procreation

valid marriage required consent of both partners

Question 11

Contradiction in sexual pleasure

Answer 11

complexities over sexual pleasure

sinned if you had carnal knowledge of your wife in ways other than nature calls for

but have conjugal debt

enforceable by law - partner’s moral obligation to keep the other satisfied.

Question 12

What was the situation with Rape?

Answer 12

condemned in canon law - but in some cases allowed freedom

not always sexual penetration but kidnapping - if the rapist did penance and the victim agreed - they could get married - thus allowing women more agency in choosing their husbands.

Question 13

How were women represented in Courtly love?

Answer 13

symbolic capital

hybrid gender - female sexuality and the status of a feudal lord - women wielding masculine abilities and male prerogatives in love

yet also detached and absent object of desire