Nontraditional Women Anonymous College

The early modern period brought with it a reshaping of European culture, and in particular, the derogatory perception of women, rooted in a traditionally male view of the female as inferior in both mind and body[1]. This view pervaded the intellectual, medical, legal, religious and social milieu of the preceding centuries, exemplified in Aristotle’s identification of men as possessors of virile qualities, like rationality and courage, contrasted with women as irrational, cowardly and weak. Men were seen as being in control of their passions, whereas women were ‘incomplete…crav(ing) sexual fulfilment in intercourse with a male’ and consequently, ‘lustful, deceitful, talkative…hysterical.’[2] Such Greek philosophical views thus became the basis for medieval thought, as did Roman law, stressing the subordinate status of women, and religious Christian doctrine, burdening women with the guilt of the original sin.

The emergence of the early modern period was thus firmly structured around these negative attitudes towards women, with a cultural and critical re-examination representing the only way towards dismantling such views. Humanism became the dominant intellectual movement, rejecting ‘out of touch’[3] medieval scholarship and...