The two images above represent gender stereotyping (all the way back from the 18th century!) It was believed that because men and women had different bodies, they therefore had different personal qualities. According to a project about London’s criminal court:
Men, as the stronger sex, were thought to be intelligent, courageous, and determined. Women, on the other hand, were more governed by their emotions, and their virtues were expected to be chastity, modesty, compassion, and piety. Men were thought to be more aggressive; women more passive. These differences were echoed in the faults to which each sex was thought to be prone. Men were prone to violence, obstinacy, and selfishness, while women’s sins were viewed as the result of their tendency to be ruled by their bodies and their emotions, notably lust, excessive passion, shrewishness, and laziness.
Expectations of male and female conduct derived from these perceived virtues and weaknesses. In marriage, men were expected to rule over their wives, and all property (except in some cases property acquired by the woman before marriage) belonged to the husband. Men were the primary wage earners, while women were expected to be primarily responsible for housework and childcare, though both sexes participated in all these activities. Women’s paid employment was typically low status, low paid, and involved fewer skills and responsibilities than men’s. The types of work available to women were confined to a few sectors of the economy where the work could be seen as an extension of women’s domestic responsibilities, such as domestic service, the clothing trades, teaching, and nursing.
The main message: not much seems to have changed from the 18th century. We may have the internet and airplanes, but a lot of these stereotypes still stand, for both men and women!
For more on historical perceptions of gender check out:
- History in Focus has a ton of links to resources, websites, articles, bibliographies and more
- The blog Early Modern Notes has a good article on Women’s History and Gender History
- The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has a crazy amount of primary and secondary sources, including a cross-dressing saint from the sixth century
