The women of the Renaissance, like women of the Middle Ages, were denied all political rights and considered legally subject to their husbands. Women were controlled by their parents throughout their childhood and then handed directly into the hands of a husband, who would exercise control over their until their death or his.
Women of all classes were expected to perform the duties of housewife:
Peasant women worked in the field with their husbands and ran the home.
The wives of middle class shop owners and merchants often helped run their husbands' businesses as well.
Women of the highest class, though attended by servants, most often engaged in the tasks of the household, sewing, cooking and entertaining.
Women who did not marry didn't have independence of thought and action and it was not permitted to live independently: they lived in the households of their male relatives or joined a convent , the only career accessible to them.