Renaissance Women's Education Analysis

Although never fully supported or thought to be necessary in the beginning, the overall value and importance of education for women decreased throughout the eras, instead of improving or becoming more important. Women’s education was argued through letters, plays, and books throughout the centuries. Some Renaissance thinkers like Erasmus believed in education for women and argued that it led to virtue, but Martin Luther later disputed that women did not need to be educated because they were born to manage the household. The Protestant Reformation, the value of family was revived through teachings of the Bible, and the idea that women are meant to stay at home and take care of the family was reaffirmed. Even during the seventeenth century, the idea of equality of education …show more content…
Due to the Reformation, when people believed again that women were subservient to men and were not as smart, women’s education became less important, even during the beginning of the Enlightenment. Ironically, at the same time that Jean-Jacques Rousseau introduced the idea that all men were born free and equal, women did not have the same opportunity to be educated or pursue a career other than managing the household. Even other women like Madame de Maintenon did not believe that all women should be educated. Mary Astell, Margaret Cavendish and other women had to fight for their right to an equal education, even though only 200 years before, Renaissance thinkers believed that women had the same potential to learn as men. Men did not support women’s education because they didn’t think women were as smart as them or worthy enough to be fully educated and meant to be submissive to