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Erin Kim
Mr. Chung
Language Arts 2 Pre-IB H Period 6
23 April 2016
Gender Roles in Elizabethan England and the 1990s
Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare was regarded as a shrew
because she did not conform to the 16th-century norms of a quiet, obedient woman. Womens
roles have changed over time from having a low status and many restrictions to near equality
with men in the workforce and home. In Elizabethan England, women were legally, politically,
socially, and economically limited and confined to the domestic sphere. In the 1990s, traditional
roles were broken as most women entered the workforce and men increased involvement in
childcare. One of the few similarities between the two eras was that women were still primarily
responsible for housework and children in addition to their jobs. Overall, womens rights and
gender norms have improved and changed over time.
Women in Elizabethan England had a low status, were limited in education and careers,
and were expected to be silent and submissive. Legally, women could not vote and had few
rights. Upon marriage, a husband gained control over all of his wifes property, including any
land she inherited and her clothes. Females rarely got an education, for schools were male-only.
Girls in lower classes would learn basic reading and writing if they were lucky. While upper
classes had the ability to give finer education to their daughters, a girls education was still
oriented around domestic skills. For instance, Baptista in Shakespeares The Taming of the
Shrew hired special tutors for his daughter Bianca (Act 3, Scene 1). Furthermore, girls learned
domestic work including cooking, music, needlework, and spinning. Women did not work
outside the house; their only possible career option was marriage. Wives ran the household and
supported their husbands according to their social class. For example, a farmers wife helped out

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on the farm while an upper-class woman had servants (Papp, Joseph, and Elizabeth Kirkland).
Expectations for women included being timid, soft, frail, and obedient. According to the Bible,
wives were instructed to submit to their husbands and to be obedient to them. Eve, the first
woman, was blamed for causing the fall of man, leading to the common assumption that all
women were not to be trusted. A woman who did conform to the standards of inner beauty -chastity, obedience, patience, modesty, and virtue -- was considered an unfaithful seductress;
outspoken women were called shrews (The Taming of the Shrew). Clearly, women were
limited to the domestic sphere and expected to conform to subservient and degrading norms.
Gender roles for women and men in the family and workplace became more similar
during the 1990s. Women were not expected to become stay-at-home mothers; it was common
for married women to work outside the home. This would have been unacceptable in the 1500s.
In the 1990s, 60 percent of women participated in the labor force, which was a great increase
from World War II (Francis, Changing Work Behavior of Married Women). Womens wages
increased, and they were employed in jobs other than the traditional feminine areas of nurse and
secretary (Bishop, Family Structure Changes). Additionally, men were not traditionally
regarded as the breadwinners of the family. They became more involved in childrearing and
home responsibilities. In fact, fathers became more emotionally connected with their children.
With wives and mothers entering the workforce, 70 percent of American children had both
parents who were working (Coontz, Why Gender Equality Stalled). Gender roles in the 1990s
were a stark contrast to the restrictions and traditions of Elizabethan England. Working mothers
and double-income families were common, as were men involved in housework.
Despite the greater freedom for women in the 1990s, they had domestic duties that were
similar to Shakespearean norms. Women in both time periods were largely responsible for

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childcare and housework. While husbands did assist in the 1990s, wives still did the majority of
household chores. Women were not completely equal, for they received less wages than men did
for the same jobs (Coontz, Why Gender Equality Stalled).
In conclusion, women and men were not limited to the traditional gender divisions people
in Elizabethan England were divided by. Wives did not have to be stay-home mothers, and
fathers could spend more time with their children than before. The treatment of Katherine in The
Taming of the Shrew reveals the gender stereotypes of the 1500s and criticizes their derogatory
view of women. Women and men have broken from traditional societal restraints over the course
of history.

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Works Cited
Bishop, Jill W. "Family Structure Changes." Family Structure Changes. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar.
2016.
Coontz, Stephanie. "Why Gender Equality Stalled." The New York Times. The New York Times,
16 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
Francis, David R. "Changing Work Behavior of Married Women."Changing Work Behavior of
Married Women. National Bureau of Economic Research, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
Papp, Joseph, and Elizabeth Kirkland. "The Status of Women in Shakespeare's Time." Gale
Student Resources in Context. Gale Group, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Taming of the Shrew. New
York: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1992. Print.