ABSTRACT
The identity of a woman is essentially constructed through the roles of daughter, wife and mother. In any case, in her role as a mother, it befell a woman to bring up her daughters and sons to fulfil the society's gender-normative roles. The conflicting emotions and guilt experienced by many women in the crossfire between the roles of good mother, good daughter and ambitious career woman demonstrate that caring is still seen especially as a feminine duty. As a mother, the ideal woman of the early modern period had to love her children and bring them up to be God-fearing, while also 'keeping a keen eye on their daughters' to protect their purity, i.e. virginity. Early modern Europe also took influences for how to cope with the problem of disobedient daughters and wives from ancient times. This chapter helps to justify violence conducted against wives and daughters in the home.
