Peasant women of the Middle Ages had to wake up real early to cook breakfast and head off to the fields where they would work the rest of the day. In the movie 'The Name Of The Rose' women's roles were to be a peasants and a prostitutes. According to the church and the monks in the abbey they said that women were devils. For example, in the movie Adso fell in love with this woman but instead of moving in with her, he left her and continued on with his beliefs. Also, in the movie brother William said "more bitter then death is women" which means women would ruin lives. If women were not paesants they would be living out of their husbands' money.

Women Being Instruted

Women in the Middle Ages were instructed by their husbands who taught them how to act in all aspects of their lives. According to the Comportment Books women were taught how to be faithful, quiet and subservent. They had to be obedient and represent their husbands in society. This means that their husbands controled their lives, had power to decide for them and to have them do anything they desired. Although the word slavery is never used to characterize women in the middle ages, it is essentially the equivalent of what was happening with them at the time.

Women's Desagreement

Women in the medieval time had to obey all that their husbands demanded from them, even if it was something that they were in disagreement on. To illustrate, Griselda permitted that her husband take her children away even if she believed that he was going to harm them. This is an extreme example of a women's obedience in the medieval era, regardless of how unfair they found them. They had no say and had to abide by their husbands' words no matter what. One could, say that medieval times was a time when there was a man's society with women just being used.

Women in the Middle Ages didn't have any basic rights. They were subjugated by their husbands as wives or by their parents as daughters. Women had to follow absolute rules. they worked very hard at home and also some of them had to work shoulder by shoulder with their husbands who delegated many responsabilities to their wives. To illustrate, Margaret Paston who had the responsabilities to manage her husband's business affairs also had to act as a mediator between him and the many people who he was dealing with in the country. Even though she didn't receive any pay for the job, this gave her and all women of the times a little freedom to do something else than household.

Women's Image

Women's image in the medieval times were as a housewives full of limitations to prevent them from taking decisions without their husband's permission. They always had to act the way that society and especially their husbands expected them to. In the "Good wife's guide" the husband expected his wife to follow all of his instructions as a housewife, she had to as obedient as the Comportment Books where it was suggested that women where to obey husbands and follow their every order. In both written works women were trained or educated by their husbands. They had to act and behave in accordance with their wishes and perspectives.

Book for Women in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, books written for women by men were based on bible passages and men's beliefs of how women had to be and act. "The head of the woman is the man"(Corinthians 11). "Women are commanded to be under obedience and also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home"(Ephesian 5). Those statements are clearly examples of how women had to conduct themselves according to the bible's passages.The books for women where just to teach them how to be obedient, quiet, faithful, good wives and so on. Obviously, those books portrayed women as inferior to men. The interpretations of the bible were in part responsible for the belief that women were inferior than men in medieval times.

Sexual Politics

In medieval times women were shown as innocent and without maliciousness in sexual activities campus. However, some wives used sexual politics to get what they wanted by having sexual encounters to pay off her debts or get money. To illustrate, the merchant's wife used her sexual encounters to get money from Dan John. She used manipulation to get money. For example, she would say her husband was horrible to her. This money was used to buy clothes and then she would have sex with her husband to repay. This is a clear example that some women used their sexual attractiveness to obtain comfort and money.