Renaissance Women

1
Renaissance Women

• Renaissance Mother
• Renaissance Childbirth Child Mortality
• Unmarried Women Illegitimate Children and
  Widows
• Convents
• Witch Hunts
• The Education of Renaissance Women

2
Topic Renaissance Mother

• What occupied the lives of most Renaissance
  women?
• Motherhood
• Why were wealthy women able to have more
  children?
• Wealthy women married earlier and did not
  breastfeed.

3
Topic Renaissance Childbirth Child Mortality

• What percent of women died from childbirth?
• 10
• Name three diseases that children died of during
  the Renaissance.
• Tuberculosis
• Influenza
• Diarrhea
• Chronic malnutrition starvation and neglect
  also led to a high infant mortality rate.

4
Topic Unmarried Women Illegitimate Children
and Widows

• What happened to a woman who had an illegitimate
  child?
• She was taxed, imprisoned or banished from the
  community.
• What is infanticide?
• The killing of a baby.
• Describe advantages and disadvantages of being a
  widow.
• Advantages
• Economic independence inherited property carry
  on husbands trade
• Disadvantages
• Responsible for husbands debt
• If childless, the woman could be returned to her
  father, uncle or brothers care
• Poor women were left destitute

5
Topic Convents

• List two reasons why families put their daughters
  in convents.
• Families had to supply a dowry for the daughter
  
• A dowry could make a family bankrupt
• Describe what happened to girls who were forced
  into convents.
• They were forced to obey the law of poverty,
  obedience and chastity
• Their hair was cut, legs shaved and forced to
  where a habit.
• What were the advantages of becoming a nun?
• They could become educated.
• They could care for the poor, sick or insane.
• They could teach and / or write.
• They could preach or write letters to powerful
  church or government members.
• Describe the family background of most nuns.
• Most women were the daughters of the nobility or
  wealthy.

Nuns in a choir. From Shakespeare's England
6
Topic - Witch Hunts

• What is a witch hunt?
• A witch hunt is an investigation to search for
  and harass dissenters (those who disagree with
  popular opinion)
• What kind of woman was accused of being a witch?
• Women who practiced folk medicine, chanted or who
  were outspoken or challenged the authority of men
  or the church or women who just didnt fit in.
• For what were they accused?
• They were accused of meeting regularly with the
  devil, dancing naked, killing infants and flying
  on broomsticks.
• What was the punishment for witchcraft?
• Punishment was death.
• How many women were persecuted during the witch
  hunts?
• Conservatively 100,000
• Other estimates 900,000

7
Topic The Education of Renaissance Women

• What were the goals of education for a middle or
  upper middle class girl?
• To guide the young women to develop a concept of
  marriage in which the man was boss
• To train her to run a home and raise children.
• What skills did these women learn?
• How to look after a home and raise children.
• What kind of education did poor girls get?
• They received no formal education but some were
  trained in crafts.