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

Periods of European report that Demonstrated Changing Attitudes Towards the Education of Wo custody Throughout the early portion of moderne European history, women werenever encouraged to undertake any significant program line. though the problemlessened over time, it was still a strong social force. There were threemajor time periods when substantial changes took place in attitudes towardswomens education -- the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Seventeenthand the early Eighteenth centuries. The earliest time period, the Renaissance, may have actu eithery been themost liberal time period for womens education. The church was the onlyforce at this time that discouraged education. In Erasmuss declare TheAbbot and the Learned Lady, The churchs position on this issue says thateducation does not protect the chastity that was necessary for women. Therewere still, however, a consequence that women could and should be improve. For example, in Castigliones book The Co urtier, it is stated that womenare capable of everything that men are. Also, Roger Ascham has describedhis female student(the future Queen Elizabeth I) as equally smart as a whip as anyother male student of his. Furthermore, in a letter by the poet LouiseLabe, she states a need for women to raise their head supra theirspindles and take up studying. The next age, the Reformation and the catholic Reformation, saw adramatic and conservative change toward the attitudes of education forwomen. Martin Luther, a leader of the Reformation, was quoted as sayingthat God made men with broad shoulders to do all the intelligent, and womenwith broad hips to do the sitting and housework. Agreeing with MartinLuther, was Emond Auger, a French Jesuit, who said on that point is no need forwomen to take time out from their work and indicate the Old and New Testamentand also that Women must be quiet in church. The third age of early modern European history is the seventeenth andearly eigh teenth centuries, in which men at large were still stronglyagainst the education of women, however they had reached a agree to someextent. They allowed women to be educated on a minor level, as Mme. deMaintenon(wife of Louis XIV) says Educate your middle-class girls in themiddle-class way, but dont embellish their minds, but a women could nevergo beyond that. It seemed also that some men had conflicting view pointson this issue. In Molieres play The Learned Ladies, educated women are