HIST 129T: Women, Sex, and Power

Directed Reading #3

Women and Men on the Role of Women

 

 

 “Calvin’s 12th Sermon upon St. Pauls’ Epistle to the Ephesians”

 

  1. According to Calvin, how should elder women behave?  What is to be their role?
  2. What about young women?  Married women?
  3. Calvin points out that St. Paul prescribes women should love their husbands and children.  According to Calvin, what did St. Paul mean?
  4. In Calvin’s view, what is it that leads women not to live according to the prescriptions above?  What does this imply?
  5. What does Calvin mean when he prescribes that women should be “sober”?  How does women’s sobriety differ from men’s?
  6. What is the main virtue St. Paul required in women?  What does this particular virtue entail?  Why is it so important?
  7. Why is women’s silence so demanded?
  8. In all this, what role are men to have?  Explain.
  9. Why, in your opinion, would women follow the prescriptions of St. Paul which Calvin preached?

 

The Education of a Christian Woman

 

  1. Who does Vives offer to be women’s role model?  In your opinion, what are the strengths and/or weaknesses of such a prescription?
  2. Vives argues that women should appear in public as rarely as possible.  Why is that?  What does such argument imply?
  3. Why do you think Vives concentrates so much on appearances?  What does this tell you about the Early Modern period?
  4. How should young women go about seeking a spouse?  What considerations should be kept in mind?
  5. How far does Vives take his prescriptions for women?  That is, does he seek to regulate their actions, attitudes, mentalities, what?  Again, what does that tell you about the period we’re investigating?
  6. How can a woman make her marriage a happy one?  What two crucial attributes must she possess to “render marriages strong… [and] pleasant”?
  7. How should a woman behave towards her husband?  Why?  How does Vives drive his point home? 
  8. In page 195, Vives elucidates what I call the “conundrum of honor.”  What is it? 
  9. In general, how should married women behave?  What about widows?  How are these prescriptions similar to or different from those made to young women?

 

 

“Some Reflections upon Marriage”

 

  1. What causes Mary Astell to write this essay?  What is the story of the Duchess of MAzarine as told by Astell?
  2. Who is the author’s intended audience?  What is her goal?
  3. What is Astell’s main argument?  How does she present it?
  4. How does Astell describe marriage?  According to her, is it inherently bad?  Explain.
  5. What are the strengths of marriage?  On the other hand, what are its possible pitfalls?  What causes marriages to fail?  What does her exposition about marriage tell us about European life ca. 1700?
  6. Astell describes quite eloquently her contemporaries’ expectations of what a good wife ought to be.  What were those expectations?
  7. How does Astell describe women in general?  What attitude/actions does she prescribe women to follow?
  8. Is Astell’s essay a diatribe against marriage or against social mobility?  Explain.
  9. In the later part of the essay, Astell argues for the improved education of women.  What kind of education is she prescribing?  To what end?  How does she sell the point?
  10. How is Astell’s piece similar/different from the ones above?
  11. Mary Astell has been called the “first English female feminist.”  Would you agree with this appellation?  Why?