Throughout history, the position of women in society has fluxed dramatically. It seems quite clear from looking at historical evidence that most of this movement has been a decline, rather than an improvement in the social attitudes towards women. In Anglo- Saxons times, women were valued members of the community. In this sometimes brutal and war driven era, the men were the hunters and protectors, and the women homemakers, providing food and clothing for the family. This can be seen clearly in the grave goods of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Male skeletons are mostly recovered with weaponry adorning them, and women with small symbolic sewing kits.
[...] The Anglo Saxon Chronicles mentions her briefly in 913, where she is fighting the Danes in a personal capacity at Stafford. Lacey reveals how she built ten fortresses in five years, and fought many victories against the Danes, becoming one of the most powerful figures in early 10th. England. N.J. Higham presents us with another formidable female figure, Queen Emma of the 11th. Higham reveals Emma, second wife of Cnut, to have been a key political mover at the beginning of this century. [...]
[...] Instead of the more recent ritual of a dowry, paid to the future husband in return for marrying a daughter, in Anglo Saxon times, the future bride was herself paid a form of dowry, the morning gift, which often involved quantities of both land and money, which she was entitled to keep during the marriage, (which she was also entitled to walk free from at any time). Another interesting example of the value of women is seen in the set of laws written up by King Alfred. [...]
[...] This explanation helps us to understand why the role of women in society changed so dramatically from the Anglo-Saxon ideas of sexual equality, where women had a right to education, property, wealth and power, to the more recent view of women as inferior, which reached its peak in the 19th. This newer attitude is expressed clearly in George Elliot's novel Middlemarch, when the female character of Dorothea wishes to learn Greek and Latin, but fears failure because they are seen as 'provinces of masculine knowledge.' Anglo -Saxon women were fierce and hardy, as befitted the times they lived in. [...]
[...] All the canons were married, and in 964, Ethelwold was outraged at this discovery, and told them to choose between their jobs or their wives . they were drummed out of the cathedral, to be replaced by a team of celibate monks . This renewed effort to integrate Christianity into Britain was to affect the attitudes towards women for centuries to come. Suddenly we start seeing the devaluation of women, they become sinful and inferior. Toward the end of the Anglo Saxon period, Egfrith of Northumbria turns away from his patron, St. Wilfrid, and it is blamed on his 'jezebel' Queen. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
