Even though there was an unmarried woman on the throne in Elizabethan England, the roles of women in society were very limited. Here are some examples:
- Men were expected to be the breadwinners and women to be housewives and mothers.
- Elizabethan society was patriarchal, meaning that men were considered to be the leaders and women their inferiors.
- Women were not allowed to go to school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors.
- Women were not allowed to enter the professions i.e law, medicine, politics, but they could work in domestic service as cooks, maids etc.
- Women were also allowed to write works of literature,only if the subject was suitable for women: mainly translations or religious works.
- Women were not allowed to act on the public stage or write for the public stage.
- Women,could not inherit their father's titles. All titles would pass from father to son or brother to brother, depending on the circumstances. The only exception was, of course, the crown.
All in all, women had more freedom in the Elizabethan period than they had had previously. It was thought men and women could do anything and be anything they wanted to be, that their capacity for knowledge was limitless. Thus, noble women, as well as men, were given an impressive education in the classics, mathematics, and all other academic subjects of the day. Elizabeth being on the throne also encouraged noble men to educate their daughters, as they did not want them to look dim in the presence of their very intelligent and highly educated queen.
Paradojically, the ones who suffered most were women, such as que Queen, who didn't want to marry.
