Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women :: European Europe History

Periods of European History that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Women Throughout the early portion of modern European history, women were never encouraged to undertake any significant education. Though the problem lessened over time, it was still a strong societal force. There were three major time periods when substantial changes took place in attitudes towards women's education -- the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Seventeenth and the early Eighteenth centuries. The earliest time period, the Renaissance, may have actually been the most liberal time period for women's education. The church was the only force at this time that discouraged education. In Erasmus's book "The Abbot and the Learned Lady", The church's position on this issue says that education does not protect the chastity that was necessary for women. There were still, however, a certainty that women could and should be educated. For example, in Castiglione's book "The Courtier", it is stated that women are capable of everything that men are. Also, Roger Ascham has described his female student(the future Queen Elizabeth I) as equally bright as any other male student of his. Furthermore, in a letter by the poet Louise Labe`, she states a need for women to "raise their head above their spindles" and take up studying. The next age, the Reformation and the catholic Reformation, saw a dramatic and conservative change toward the attitudes of education for women. Martin Luther, a leader of the Reformation, was quoted as saying that God made men with broad shoulders to do all the intelligent, and women with broad hips to do the "sitting" and housework. Agreeing with Martin Luther, was Emond Auger, a French Jesuit, who said "there is no need for women to take time out from their work and read the Old and New Testament" and also that "Women must be silent in church". The third age of early modern European history is the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in which men at large were still strongly against the education of women, but they had reached a compromise to some extent. They allowed women to be educated on a minor level, as Mme. de Maintenon(wife of Louis XIV) says "Educate your middle-class girls in the middle-class way, but don't embellish their minds", but a women could never go beyond that. It seemed also that some men had conflicting view points on this issue. In Moliere's play "The Learned Ladies", educated women are