Female Humanists In The Renaissance

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Female Humanists in the Renaissance The Italian Renaissance: as this era’s influence began to spread from Italy to the rest of Western Europe, one also begins to encounter progressivism unlike anything seen before, particularly from the uncommon “female humanists.” Women during the Renaissance were indeed allowed to dedicate themselves to the classical humanist studies of the liberal arts, however, it was widely understood that they were not to act upon those studies; they were merely for her entertainment and betterment as a human. Women were not to interact in the public forums, not to enter into circles of learned humanists, and certainly not to write and publish one’s work. We see this was in fact the case for even—or rather especially—noble …show more content…
While peculiarly receiving praise from her male peers she wrote often, as well as in all three of the major humanistic styles (letter, oration, and dialogue). However, the one piece that stands out in terms of her female humanist progressivism is her Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve (1451). Within this work Norgarola denounces the widely accepted beliefs of the time about her sex due to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, the first two humans within the Christian faith, of whom caused the fall from grace.
Society had dubbed women as the “bad seed” because of this. Eve picked the apple, Eve tempted Adam, and therefore Eve caused the fall. Because of this accepted interpretation women were labeled as inherently evil while men were simply “let off the hook,” if you will. This early explanation displays not only the power of the papacy in societal interactions and thoughts, but perhaps more evidently the power of the patriarchy. Whether consciously or not, men had found a way to keep women down because of the almost entirely accepted faith of the …show more content…
Around the same time that Cereta was writing her letters, women’s dowries became more flexible, thus giving them, for the first time in many of their lives, options with what they wanted. Women did still marry extremely young, and families did still rely on their daughters to help their social, and therefore financial status rise through their marriages, however fathers learned the value their daughters had, so they stayed home longer, were not widowed for as long as previously, were able to receive more education, and gained more control over their own lives. So as time progressed, the situation for women consistently got better, as time progressed, women began to taste freedom. Thus, women’s rights became a real thing, and slowly but surely, women will to fight for their sex began popping up everywhere. Oppression and resistance did stand in their way, as it still does today, yet they fought through it and began to change the path for
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