The Catholic Church’s influence on women’s conditions and lifestyle in Europe an historical work starting from the Early Modern Age

Abstract

This Thesis aims to analyze and study how various and disparate factors have influenced women’s conditions and lifestyle since the most ancient eras and, more specifically, since the Early Modern Age. Among these factors also appeared a secular institution, the Catholic Church, which, with its beliefs and teachings, has often discriminated women, precluding them from obtaining and benefiting from social, economic and political rights. The Early Modern Age has been an era of discoveries and general developments for Europe; however, these changes and advances did not touch every single sphere of the Europeans’ lives, especially that of women. Indeed, during this era, the Catholic’s perpetuation of a distorted idea of females, based on the biblical narratives about Eve and her betray of God, acted as an additional gender discriminating element for women, who were already regarded as second-level human beings and thus not able to enjoy the same rights and privileges men had at the time. This Church’s misrepresentation of women during the Early Modern Age was also at the basis of the development of an actual and structural war against them with the fomentation of witch hunts and witch trials, led by the Tribunal of the Inquisition. The living situation of women started to change only in the Modern Era not due to external causes but because of the acknowledgement by women themselves of all the discriminations and injustices that they were subjected to since the most ancient times. Besides fighting against social and cultural traditions, women also had to clear various Christian beliefs that have helped maintain a patriarchal and misogynistic view upon society. Some of these Catholic’s pillars, like for instance the ban of abortion, continue to discriminate and preclude women from joining their rights also in our contemporary era, as we can observe in certain areas of Europe which are still highly subjugated by these religious beliefs.