ABSTRACT
The status of “woman” at the beginning of the sixteenth century was determined by assumptions about women’s inferior social status, domestic roles, and limited potential. Yet such factors as the rise in the number of court cases instigated by women and the Humanists’ recommendations for educating women to be intelligent companions to men and helpers in the family business (as record-keepers, for example) suggest a concern about women’s extra-domestic roles. An increasing amount of criticism of and even resistance to the gender hierarchy ignited the controversy about women, and informed emerging debates about women’s education and participation in intellectual circles.
