The Women Troubadours (Option B)

In the book, The Women Troubadours, author Meg Bogin states that “Throughout the Middle Ages women were the pawns of men.”  In the book Bogin uses several examples to defend her claim.  During the Middle Ages the focus was almost always on men and little attention was directed to women.  Bogin starts out by saying that men had almost all the power, “only in the most exceptional cases did [women] have any say in their own destiny” (page 10).  During the Middle Ages one of the most important roles of women was to produce male children.  If a woman failed to do so she could be divorced from her husband, without any legal protection, and possibly even be sent to a convent (page 11).  At the beginning of the Middle Ages women were not allowed to own land or inherit (pages 22-23).   According to the rules of inheritance, money and property were to be passed down through all of the sons before the daughters, regardless of age.  Eventually women were allowed to own land but, according to Bogin, most women were hesitant to go against such a longstanding tradition (page 22).  When comparing the Middle Ages to current times, there have been several significant improvements in the treatment of women, but perfect equality still has yet to be achieved.  Nowadays women can decide who they want to marry and are able to inherit anything.  In the United States we have laws against discriminating against someone because of their sex.  Even with all of the advances in the treatment of women there are still some setbacks.  In my sociology class I learned that on average for every dollar men earn working, women only earn 72 cents for doing the same exact job.  Women are also expected to do most of the household work and childrearing, even if they have a full time job.   There have been tremendous developments in the treatment of women since the Middle Ages, but even today there is still room for improvement.