Medeval Women
...e hath much comfort for her husband, when they are well consorted, and each is well content with the other." This was the common attitude amoung women and very few opposed their parents wishes. A woman who refused to marry was considered to be disrespectful and disobiedent to their parents as well as having a lack of respect (SYN) of the sacrement of marriage. In addition to marriage, women sometimes worked outside the home. "Women worked not only as the partners of their merchant husbands but as employees and even businesswomen in their own right." Also the food and textile trades were largelt dominated by female workers. Some, however, made a living as a maids, working in homes of people could afford it. Lastly, women had the final option of being a nun. Usually this was decieded by the parents at a very young age. These convents were where Europe wrote about thier way of life in regaurd to politics, history, and medicine. Without these religious buildings we would know little about happenings in the Middle Ages. Living in a convent was good for some women because they were taught to read and write, and they became educated people, unlike most of the Western world. These places were not as noble and advanced as they appeared to be. Some of the women were put in there by thier families, instead of making thier own decision to give thier lives to God. This lead to nuns having affairs with men, and even prenancy for a few of them. To check these convents a bishop visited to make sure everything was in order, but, "very seldom is the fastidous bishop able to write of some convent he has visited, we found everthing there to be in good condition." Margery Kempe's life parallel's Emile Amt's research in a few distint ways. Amt talks about a woman's view on life which was to marry and have kids, and Margery does just that. She grew close to her husband and her fourteen kids, spite the fact she only wanted one child. The two are also share similar thoughts with religion and the way they look at God above all others. Both nuns and Margery Kempe do no have sex, with a few exception in the convents, and also follow very rigid dietary rules. The Christian life is a big part of society in Europe as well as in Kempe's life. Emile speaks of the convents that women would become nuns at if thier religious views were strong, but Margery Kempe "was in no position simply to renounce the worl by entering a nunnery". She gave her life to God in her own way, a way that she thought God most liked. They both believe in the same things, Kempe just takes Christ and her beliefs to the extreme. Margery Kempe was very different from the average women of the medieval world. After she had the children with her husband she refused to have sex any longer. She said this because her love for God exceeded the love for her husband. She even went to the extent in stating, "she would rather that he were slain than have to submit to his lusts." This bring the two to come to a "mutual chasity" and agree not to have sex. This came with her believing in a miracle, in whi...