Women during the Middle Ages actually made gains during this often perceived "down time" in World History. What kind of gains did they make and why do you think it happened?

 

The assessment of the role that women played in medieval society depends on what time we compare it with. In a simplified way we can say that the situation of women in the Middle Ages was worse than today (only in the western developed world) but better than in the previous period (Roman Empire) And also better than in later centuries (centuries XVI to XIX).

The reason is that Roman Law (used during the Roman Empire and rescued by absolutist monarchies since the 16th century) was much less conducive to women than the "Common Law" of Germanic origin.

The great French medievalist Regine Pernoud asserts:

"The heyday (of women) would correspond to the feudal era, from the 10th century to the end of the 13th [...]; it is indisputable that at that time women exerted an influence that neither the ladies in favor of La Fronda could have had in the seventeenth century or the severe anarchists of the nineteenth century "

For example, in Rome women could not fulfill any administrative function: neither in the citizens' assembly, nor in the magistracy, nor in the courts.

Robert Villers states:

"In Rome, the woman, without exaggeration or paradox, was not subject of law ... Her personal condition, the woman's relationship with her parents or with her husband are the competence of the domus, of which the father, the father-in-law or the husband are all-powerful bosses ... The woman is only an object "

Historians know that it was a Roman custom to kill non-first-born daughters. Roman Private Law treaties called it: "Forced disappearance of minor daughters."

The father considered it convenient to keep his sons for military reasons, unless they were malformed or seemed too sickly, but usually he kept only one daughter, the first-born. It was quite exceptional that in a Roman family there were more than one daughter.

Only around the year 390, at the end of the fourth century, civil law took away from the father the right of life or death over his children. With the spread of Christianity, the first and most decisive discrimination between the sexes disappeared: the right to life corresponded to both girls and boys.

Women in the Christianization of Europe

The names that are mentioned in the sources during the second and third centuries of our era, find in her list many more names of women than men. Among the masculine names, along with that of Plotinus, the writer Aulo Gelio and the great Origen, the dictionary only mentions Saint Sebastian; Twenty-one women are named, among them: Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, and Faustina, the wife of the Emperor Antoninus. The other nineteen are saints, women whom the Church placed on altars. This abundance of female names that survived for the general public when those of the ephemeral emperors of those two centuries disappeared, indicates the importance of these saints, almost all young women, who died to affirm their faith. Ágata, Inés, Cecilia, Lucía, Catalina, Margarita, Eulalia, etc.

In addition, such important figures as Faviola of Rome (4th century) emerged. Roman noblewoman converted to Christianity, who sold all her goods, distributed her money among the poor and founded the first hospital in the West in Rome, around the year 390.

Melania the Younger (383 - 439). Heir to her grandmother's vast possessions she retired to the Holy Land where her grandmother had founded a community of pious women in Jerusalem. It is known that Melania developed a concrete and certain action in the slave liberation movement.

Santa Clotilde (475 - 545). The wife of the Frankish king Clovis had a decisive influence on the conversion of Clovis and all the Frankish people to Catholic Christianity.

Nuns and mystics

In the religious field, the list of educated and influential women is very extensive. Here we cite some of the most outstanding:

Hrotswitha, Abbess of Gandersheim (935-1002). It is considered the first great name of German literature in the 10th century. She was a writer of legends and liturgical dramas.

Landsberg shoe (1130-1195). Author of "Hortus delicieum", Garden of Earthly Delights. Encyclopedic work that constituted the sum of the knowledge of its time with numerous illustrations of great documentary importance.

Hildegard of Bingen- 1098-1179. German nun who stood out both for her visions and for her vast literary work on different subjects. She was defined among the most influential women of the Middle Ages.

Women in the cultural and educational field

Dhuoda - 803 - 843. Lady of Carolingian noble stock of the 9th century. She wrote the "Manual for my son" for her son Guillermo. It is by far the oldest treatise on education, having been written in the middle of the 9th century.

Chistine de Pizan (1364-1430). Philosopher, poet and humanist, considered the first professional writer in history. Her best known work "The City of Ladies" is considered by some authors as a precursor of Western feminism and is located at the beginning of the so-called Women's Querella.

Women in the field of Medicine

Medieval woman healing a man Women cared for the sick in their family. So home medicine was in her hands. They took care of the infirmaries of the monasteries or of the hospitals of the poor and sick.

Until the 12th and 13th centuries, women had no problem practicing medicine, since then, they saw how they wanted to limit their role. Before the fourteenth century, women freely attended childbirth, attended to the health of men and women, testified as experts before the judicial courts, and administered medications.

Trotula de Salerno, an 11th century Italian doctor who wrote influential works on feminine medicine such as menstruation and childbirth, stands out in this field.

Queens

Outstanding women: Blanca de Castilla This field is the most prolific in research by different authors. For this reason, today we know of numerous queens whose power and / or influence was enormous during the medieval period, such as the great queens idolized in France: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanca of Castile.

In the Hispanic kingdoms, figures such as Queen Toda of Pamplona stood out, whose authority as the true ruler of her kingdom is recognized by Arab sources of the time.

In the counties, figures such as Ermesinda de Carcassona and Almodis de la Marca must be highlighted.

One of the great queens who reigned in her own right was Urraca de León y Castilla, who ruled one of the most powerful states in medieval Europe in the early 12th century.

Other notable queen consorts in defense of their children and the stability of their kingdoms were Doña Berenguela de Castilla or María de Molina and all this panorama finished off with the life of the most powerful queen in our history: Isabel de Castilla, whose reign she exercises as hinge between the Middle Ages proper and the absolutism of the Modern Era.