The Renaissance also led to a change in life for women. During the Middle Ages females had little rights. The church taught that they were beneath men and while they could inherit land form their husbands and fight to protect their lands when the men were away, their average day life was spent in a convent or doing homely activities. Peasant women were laborers and family caretakers. Now the upper class women gained a better education and were expected to know the classics as well as have charm, although they still had very little power in politics. As the Renaissance was growing, stories from the past were being circled around. Legends from earlier generations continued to be passed down by word of mouth as well as in books. Merchants
