Similarities Between Gender And Elizabeth I

Gender and Elizabeth I Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558-1603 and was the last member of the Tudor family to hold the throne. As a women, she faced an abundance of people with different opinions about a female ruler. Many people, notably religious leaders, believed women were weak and useless, especially without a husband. These ideas greatly influenced Elizabeth's reign by making the public dubious of her, and she reacted by representing herself as a powerful leader.
At this time, women were extremely restricted on what they could do as there were norms set in place regarding their place in society. They were to be subservient to their husbands and help him in his line of work while dealing with the household. Not many women had jobs and …show more content…
To win back the affections of the public, she was often seen with the ill “pressing their sores and ulcers, and handling them to health” (doc 9) just as Jesus once did. By comparing herself to Jesus, she may have won back the hearts of her religious subjects. However, this piece was written by Elizabeth’s personal chaplain so it is likely to be biased and written in a positive tone, and could be false. To further regain power from the religious people who too often criticized her, she became authoritative and in doing that started comparing herself to men. In Document 12, she admits she has “the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England, too”. In order to gain the support of those who doubted her, she realized she had to analogize herself to the seemingly strong and powerful. To depict this, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger painted Elizabeth extremely regal looking, standing on a map of England (Doc 8). Since Gheeraerts was the Tudors court painter, he would have worked on this with Elizabeth and she would have been able to choose what image the public saw, even if it wasn't …show more content…
In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton became the first women to be nominated for president by a major political party. Throughout her run for office, she was insulted and criticized for things a man would not receive flack for. Her private life was turned inside out and many people focused on her marriage, just as had been done with Elizabeth. Clinton was seen as sneaky and untrustworthy for her relations with big companies, while the man running against her had filed for bankruptcy several times but still had far less criticism. People said they just weren't ready for a female president, even though, as we see, Europe has been doing it for years. Otherwise, things have come a long way for women since Elizabeth was queen, but women have a lot more power to