Women of the Renaissance

The women of the Renaissance, like women of the Middle Ages, were denied all political rights and considered legally subject to their husbands. Women of all classes were expected to perform, first and foremost, the duties of housewife. Peasant women worked in the field alongside their husbands and ran the home. The wives of middle class shop owners and merchants often helped run their husbands' businesses as well. Even women of the highest class, though attended by servants, most often engaged in the tasks of the household, sewing, cooking, and entertaining, among others.

Women were paid less for same jobs which meant that more women were unemployed.

Women who could not marry or lacked the dowry required to become nuns had to find work.

Women who did not marry were not permitted to live independently. Instead, they lived in the households of their male relatives or, more often, joined a convent.