E X T E N S I O N WOMEN IN ELIZABETHAN TIMES Chastity was the highest value for Elizabethan women and few women were given much freedom while growing up. Young girls were taught to obey their parents, their brothers, and their husbands. Among the moneyed1 classes, they stayed at home and learned housekeeping and the other skills that would make them good wives and mothers. Among the poor, they also toiled2 with their parents in fields or in markets and shops. Despite the example of Elizabeth, the A merchant s wife, a servant, view of the times was that women were a townswoman (1590). not capable of learning. Many held that women would use their skills for silly ends if they were taught to read or write. Elizabeth herself banned women from universities, fearing that they would distract men from the serious pursuit of 3 learning. The age had not liberated itself from the consequences of the belief that Eve was the cause of man s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Women were therefore held to be a source of temptation and sin. After the destruction of the nunneries4, the destiny of most Elizabethan women was marriage. In most cases, marriage was arranged. Despite the love poetry that we have inherited from the poets of this period, most marriages had little to do with a woman s feelings. Marriage was a practical affair. Among the aristocracy, it was used to strengthen relationships between families. For the lower classes, females were often seen as a burden5 to be passed off6 in marriage. Sex was for reproductive purposes and was only sanctioned7 in marriage. Given the anxiety over witches in the period, there probably was a fear that women might actually enjoy sex. It is unlikely, however, that men gave much thought to a woman s feelings in this or other matters. Once married, a woman was subject to her husband. Her duty was to serve him and produce children. In a time without much medical knowledge or attention to hygiene, childbirth was difficult and dangerous. Married just out of childhood8, a woman usually faced death by the age of thirty. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. moneyed: rich. toiled: worked hard. pursuit of: the effort to achieve. nunnery: convent. burden: weight, problem. 6. be passed off: get rid of, deliver. 7. sanctioned: permitted. 8. out of childhood: when she was no longer a child. 38