Women’s role in History

Throughout the time, whole centuries of civilization, wars, industrial development, rise of new cities or peasant life have all counted with a barely inclusion of women. The history of the humanity is a history of males, not in vain there is the phrase “history of man “; women were the greatest forgotten and had to face great obstacles to be considered. The historic invisibility has made women great fighters, full of courage and strength. But let’s take a quick view through history to see and understand their role in the humanity’s development.

Let’s begin with the Stone Age. During this period the activities of the human groups were based on hunting and harvest, while men supplied meat by hunting, women collected vegetal products. Thanks to this activity women gained a deep knowledge about earth and fibers which gave them the ability to create the first handcraft containers woven with natural fibers or made with mud, baking the first ceramics and working with enamels, winning an important role in these societies. This conquered role lasted over the centuries, even reaching ancient Egypt where women enjoyed great freedom and rights. Some of them participated in the cities public life until the Greeks, when Aristoteles said that a woman was an incomplete and weak man, she was considered an unfinished being to be cared for, protected and guided, implying her total subjugation to the male and therefore her absolute separation from public life. They were married as soon as they reached a fertile age. Women were educated to be wives and learned to weave, to spin and to play the lyre. With the Roman’s women fate did not changed. The world of politics and freedom was reserved for men and the house to women.

During the Middle Age things didn’t change much regarding household activities, taking care of children and sick people, assistance to childbirth and no public life rights. Just when they worked in agriculture, they had the right to receive a salary but lower than men even if the job was the same and that this activity was essential for the maintenance of the society. Sometimes young women could find work as maids of noble ladies for a meager wage.  During this period of economic and demographic growth emerged the Bourgeoisie formed by handcrafters and merchants. They needed workforce to specialize and women took these opportunities especially in the textile workshops where they were able to create fabulous embroidery becoming a form of art and very much appreciated.

With early modern period that starts with the Renaissance Age, women role went backwards. Even if there were many profound transformations that will constitute the bases for the Contemporary Age, like the foundation of universities, the encounter with new cultures with the discovery of America, the church lost power as the state gained it, in the Bourgeoisie society the men were placed in the center of the Universe giving place to the Humanism and women stayed in the same place of submission and obedience, even worse because they were excluded from the professions they had been carrying out and more and more were locked up in the family environment. Meanwhile the peasant woman continued living in the same conditions, working in the agricultural activities and food manufacture, but from the XVII and XVIII centuries, lace and embroidery work expanded due to the bourgeois women demand, which offered new opportunities to peasant women. However, despite this new economic sector, the economic and social condition were still the same.

Finally, with the arrival of the XIX century women became emancipated. This century brought profound transformations in ideological, economic and social areas, that had an essential impact on women. The arrival of industrialization led women to work in factories while other women in society demanded more domestic help. Nursing was born, the first female teachers appeared and as in all emancipation the first artists, writers, painters, sculptors and artisans jumped to the fore. Women began to have a position in a society marked by the exclusion of a weak sex, by the exclusion of an incomplete human being that had to be controlled and guided and, that for centuries was under male power.

Today woman, wife, mother, worker are synonyms of strength, courage and love. At Snowdrop we dedicate this month’s sale to them, to those women who care about the family without forgetting themselves.