Women were impacted by the Renaissance in economic rights as well as working skills and knowledge.
Women were greatly affected economic wise because of the Renaissance. Before the Renaissance women had more responsibilities to make things such as cloths from scratch and food production. But after the 13th century many of these tasks as well as some of their jobs were replaced due to the fact of merchants obtaining the goods through trade. Also, the little amount of women which were able to keep their jobs started getting paid a lot less. The advantage to this was that the women, depending on their social status, could learn different skills.
During the Renaissance women of middle class were able to work with their husbands in their job. For example, if the husband worked as a butcher, his wife was able to work with him and gain skills as to how to perform the job. Sometimes if the husband dies and the wife knew enough, she could take over the job. Clearly, there was an extent to this. If the husband was someone like Michelangelo who was a sculptor, the wife would not be able to take over his job because she lacked the experience needed. Women of high social class where treated differently. The women of high social classes did not really work. They were treated more like territory, but most importantly were given knowledge. This was because in Castiglione’s The Courtier. In The Courtier he states his believe that women should have education in order to be able to have a conversation with someone else. This was greatly taken in by the higher classes as a need of improvement.
All in all women were greatly impacted by the Renaissance. Whether it was in a positive way, like the high social class ones, or negative way, similar to the majority of them losing their jobs, every single woman was affected. Some were affected economically and others were affected intellectually. It really all depended on what who they were and what they did that affected them in such a way. Some changes made were for the good of women while other were immoral changes.
