Women in the Renaissance
Topic: Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"
Meaning
The Renaissance ideal of the free individual and the citizen was meant for men. Aristocratic men controlled public life and the family. A wife's dowry (the money and goods a bride brings at marriage) went into the family business, but she had no say in it. Marriages were used to build business alliances, and daughters without a big enough dowry were sent to convents. In merchant families women had more room: shopkeepers' wives ran shops, and bankers' wives ran businesses when the men were away.
Example
Cassandra Fedele of Venice gave orations at the University of Padua. Isabella d'Este (1474–1539), Marchesa of Mantua, ruled her state while her husband was away. Against such women, Castiglione's The Courtier (1528) said a woman should have "soft and delicate tenderness" and should in no way resemble a man.