In the Renaissance, women were supposed to marry well, be loyal to her husband and give birth to boys.

The women of the Renaissance 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. Only women of the highest class were given the chance to distinguish themselves, and this only rarely. For the most part, the wives of powerful men were relegated to the tasks of sewing, cooking, and entertaining.

The theme of the life of a Renaissance woman was subjugation. A woman was controlled by her parents throughout her childhood, and then handed directly into the hands of a husband, whom she hadn't chosen herself, and who would exercise control over her until her death or his. Women who did not marry were likewise granted no independence of thought and action, living under subjugation in the home of a male relative or in a convent, where a woman could become a nun, the only career accessible to the gender. Women were frequently discouraged from participating in the arts and sciences, and thus the world will never know the full literary and artistic potential of an age in which the spirit of expression was perhaps the defining characteristic.