The Aspirations of Women The new ideal of individuality and citizenship excluded women. Men from aristocratic families dominated public life and were the decision-makers in their families. They educated their sons to take their place in family businesses or in public life, at times sending their younger sons to join the Church. Although their dowries were invested in the family businesses, women generally had no say in how their husbands should run their business.
Often, marriages were intended to strengthen business alliances. If an adequate dowry could not be arranged, daughters were sent to convents to live the life of a nun. Obviously, the public role of women was limited and they were looked upon as keepers of the households. C HANGING C ULTURAL T RADITIONS T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY The position of women in the families of merchants, however, was somewhat different.
Shopkeepers were very often assisted by their wives in running the shop. In families of merchants and bankers, wives looked after the businesses when the male members were away on work. The early death of a merchant compelled his widow to perform a larger public role than was the case in aristocratic families. A few women were intellectually very creative and sensitive about the importance of a humanist education.
‘Even though the study of letters promises and offers no reward for women and no dignity’, wrote the Venetian Cassandra Fedele ( - ), ‘every woman ought to seek and embrace these studies.’ She was one of a handful of women who questioned the idea that women were incapable of achieving the qualities of a humanist scholar. Fedele was known for her proficiency in Greek and Latin, and was invited to give orations at the University of Padua. Fedele’s writings bring into focus the general regard for education in that age. She was one of many Venetian women writers who criticised the republic ‘for creating a highly limited definition of freedom that favoured the desires of men over those of women’.
Another remarkable woman was the Marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d’Este ( - ). She ruled the state