Roles

The expected roles of women in Europe during the middle ages were to either be a nun or a good wife and mother. A woman was often engaged by the age of twelve, and married by the age of fifteen. Her expectations as a wife were essentially to serve her husband and his family. A woman was property. She was kept illiterate and educated only in a manner that suited her role as domestic caretaker. The closest thing to liberation a woman could experience was being a nun. Nuns were literate and educated. They occupied various spaces in society that were closed off to women outside the nunnery. “They operated businesses, farmed, made tapestries, copied and illustrated manuscripts, composed and performed music. And they educated one another,” (Guerrilla Girls 22).

Throughout the Renaissance and into the nineteenth century women were given a bit more control of their lives. While the bulk of a woman’s life was still heavily in servitude to her father or husband, there were opportunities that could allow her to branch away from that. Although receiving an education was still a challenge, it was now possible for a woman to achieve this during the renaissance. Some women were lucky to have fathers who were artists and actually sought that their daughters become educated. 

With time the city of Bologna became the hub of educated women in Europe. It also became quite the prosperous place for women artists. “There was even a school for women artists, founded by the painter Elisabetta Sirani. And guess what…there were more women artists in Bologna during this time than anywhere else in Italy,” (Guerrilla Girls 30). The artwork often reflected the domestic life that women often dealt with. Or they reflected the struggles that women in society often faced. Some women like Artemisia Gentileschi, depicted the revenge of woman who was raped.