DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION:
CHANGE IN WOMEN’S WORLDS
DIRECTIONS
The following question is based on the accompanying documents. (The documents
have been edited for the purpose of this exercise). The question is designed to test
your ability to work with and understand historical documents. Write an essay that:

Has relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.

Uses all or all but one of the documents.

Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as
possible and does not simply summarize the documents individually.

Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ points of
view.
ESSAY PROMPT
How has the status of women changed over the course of history? What reasons
would account for these changes?
Based on the following documents, discuss the general status of women in world
history. What types of additional documentation would help explain conditions
affecting women?
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Frequently hidden from official, male-written accounts of history, women existed in
the twilight of a male-dominated world. Often legally proscribed from any role in
the public world of politics, education, intellectual activities, and business, women
were forced to reside within the private worlds of the family, children, and the
home. Yet changes in history were paralleled and reflected in changes affecting
women’s place and status within society.
313
DOCUMENT 1
WOMEN HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
EUROPEAN RULERS
1450 - 1815
#
COUNTRY
RULERS
(TYPES)
Spain
1 Queen
Austria
1 Empress
England
3 Queens
UKGB
1 Queen
Scotland
1 Queen
Portugal
1 Queen
France
4 Regents
Sweden
1 Queen
Russia
1 Regent
Russia
4 Empresses
#
YEARS
RULED
30
40
57
12
25
39
31
23
7
67
18 leaders for 331 years
1815 - 2000
#
#
COUNTRY
RULERS
YEARS
(TYPES)
RULED
Portugal
1 Queen
11
Spain
2 Queens
36
Netherlands
3 Queens
110
Denmark
1 Queen
28
Ireland
2 Presidents
10
Iceland
1 President
16
UKGB
2 Queens
112
UKGB
1 Prime Min.
11
Norway
1 Prime Min.
10
Eur. Union
1 President
8
Luxembourg
2 Duchesses
71
17 leaders for 423 years
AFRICAN, ASIAN, PACIFIC, AND AMERICAN RULERS
1450 - 1815
1815 - 2000
#
#
#
#
COUNTRY
RULERS
YEARS
COUNTRY
RULERS
YEARS
(TYPES)
RULED
(TYPES)
RULED
Japan
2 Empresses
20
Brazil
1 Regent
13
India
2 Empresses
22
China
1 Empress
35
Ethiopia
1 Regent
39
Hawaii
1 Queen
4
Cambodia
1 Queen
12
Korea
1 Empress
13
Ashante
1 Queen
50
Philippines
1 President
6
Sri Lanka
2 Prime Min.
18
Pakistan
1 Prime Min.
2
Nicaragua
1 President
6
India
1 Prime Min.
15
Israel
1 Prime Min.
5
Haiti
1 Prime Min.
1
Argentina
1 President
2
Ethiopia
2 Empresses
21
Dominica
1 Prime Min.
15
7 leaders for 143 years
16 leaders for 156 years
314
DOCUMENT 2
Ban Zhao, foremost female Confucian scholar of her age and official court
historian to Emperor Han Hedi, from her Lessons for Women, c. 110 C.E.
“On the third day after the birth of a girl the ancients observed three customs:
first to place the baby below the bed; second to give her a piece of broken
pottery with which to play; and third to announce her birth to her ancestors as
an offering. Now to lay the baby below the bed plainly indicated that she is
lowly and weak, and should regard it as her primary duty to humble herself
before others. To give her pieces of pottery signified that she should practice
labor and consider it her primary duty to be industrious. To announce her birth
before her ancestors clearly meant that she ought to esteem as her primary duty
the continuation of the observance of worship in the home [produce male heirs
as only a male can conduct the ceremonies to the ancestors]. These customs
epitomize a women’s ordinary way of life and the teachings of the traditional
ceremonial rights and regulations. Let a woman modestly yield to others; let her
respect others; let her put others first; herself last. Should she do something
good, let her not mention it; should she do something bad, let her not deny it.
Let a woman retire late to bed, but rise early to duties. Let a woman be correct
in manner and upright in character in order to serve her husband.”
DOCUMENT 3
Thema Khumalo, Zimbabwean guerrilla describing her role in the revolution
and civil war against the white regime in Rhodesia, 1965 – 1980
“We woman also fought the war and I still feel proud of this. Even our children
are proud of us because they saw that women were not the cowards they had
thought we were. Instead they discovered that women are very strong. The
women provided everything the freedom fighters needed. The women were very
courageous and strong and fought to the end. We became used to people dying
at the time and so we were ready for anything. We accepted death and even
became reconciled to the idea. We became almost immune to it because a lot of
our children and neighbors died. But somehow we resolved never to go
backwards but to go forwards until we had won our country. And so we fought
side by side with the men, falling down, getting injured and getting up again.
Mothers, women are the people who fought this war and I feel proud of it. If our
affairs were now to be decided on how each of us fought, I can tell you that all
the homes would now belong to women. Before the war women were not seen,
but now we have been noticed. Some women are even members of Parliament
and have posts in the government.”
315
DOCUMENT 4
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Roman Catholic nun, late 1600s C.E., Mexico; a letter
in response to a bishop who criticized her writing as inappropriate for a nun
“Afterward, when I already knew how to read and write, along with all the
sewing skills and needlework that women learn, I discovered that in the city of
Mexico there was a university and I deluged my mother to send me to Mexico
City so that I might study and take courses. She refused; nevertheless, I found a
way to read many different books. [Later] I became a nun because, given my
disinclination to marriage, it was the least unreasonable and most becoming
choice I could make to assure my ardently desired salvation and to have no
fixed occupation which might curtail my freedom to study. I went on with the
studious pursuit of reading and more reading, study and more study. Even if
these studies were to be viewed as to one’s credit (as I see they are indeed
celebrated in men), none would be due me, since I pursue them involuntarily. If
they are seen as reprehensible, for the same reason I do not think I should be
blamed. Dr. Arce, in virtue and cultivation a worthy professor, decides that to
lecture publicly in the classroom and to preach in a pulpit are not legitimate
activities for women, but that studying, writing, and teaching privately are most
edifying and useful. The interpretation of Holy Scripture should be forbidden
not only to women considered so inept, but to men, who merely by virtue of
being men consider themselves sages.”
DOCUMENT 5
Hebrew Book of Proverbs 31: 10 – 31, compiled around the 6th century B.C.E.
“When one finds a worthy wife, her value is beyond pearls. Her husband,
entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not
evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with
skillful hands. Like merchant ships, she secures her provisions from afar. She
rises while it is still night, and distributes food to her household. She picks out a
field to purchase; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is girt about
with strength, and sturdy are her arms. She enjoys the success of her dealings;
at night her lamp is undimmed. She puts her hands to the distaff and her fingers
ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to
the needy. She makes her own coverlets; fine linen and purple are her clothing.
Her husband is prominent at the city gates as he sits with the elders of the land.
She makes her garments and sells them and stocks the merchants with belts.
She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs at the days to come. She
opens her mouth in wisdom, and on her tongue is kindly counsel.”
316
DOCUMENT 6
Al-Mawardi, 11th century C.E. Muslim jurist, from his discourse “On Judges”
“Nobody may be appointed to the office of judge who does not comply fully with
the conditions required to make his appointment valid and his decisions
effective. The first condition is that he must be a man. This condition consists of
two qualities, puberty and masculinity. As for the child below puberty, he
cannot be held accountable, nor can his utterances have effect against himself.
As for women, they are unsuited to positions of authority, although judicial
verdicts may be based on what they say. Abu Hanifa said that a woman can act
as judge in matters on which it would be lawful for her to testify, but she may
not act as judge in matters on which it would not be lawful for her to testify. Ibn
Jarir al-Tabari, giving a divergent view, allows a woman to act as judge in all
cases, but no account should be taken of an opinion which is refuted by both the
consensus of the community and the word of God. “Men have authority over
women because of what God has conferred on the one in preference to the
other,” [Quran 4:38], meaning by this, intelligence and discernment. He does
not, therefore, permit women to hold authority over men.”
DOCUMENT 7
Ida Husted Harper, article for the American magazine, Independent, 1901 C.E.
“The moment we accept that women must enter wage-earning occupations only
when compelled to do so by poverty, that moment we degrade labor and lower
the status of all women. As long as a woman advertised her dire necessity by
going outside the home to work, she could not avoid a feeling of humiliation.
The fact that only a few insignificant jobs with meager wages were permitted
added further to the disgrace. However, in the rapid evolution of the last
century, practically all occupations were thrown open and into these poured
women of education and social standing belonging to families of ample means,
barriers at once began to fall and the stigma to fail. The great organizations of
women, which have been formed, admit wage earners, and frequently women
engaged in business are elected to the offices. Those who insist that women of
the family should confine their labors to the household wholly ignore the fact,
that in the past most of women’s duties have been carried on outside the house.
Those who note that a century ago no women were in our factories, and now 45
percent of the employed are women, omit to state that most of the work now
done in factories has been taken directly away from women of the household.”
317
DOCUMENT 8
City of Magdeburg, German Holy Roman Empire, code of city laws, 1261 C.E.
12. If a man dies leaving a wife, she shall have no share in his property except
what he has given her in court, or has appointed for her dower. She must
have six witnesses, male or female, to prove her dower. If the man has made
no provision for her, her children shall support her as long as she does not
remarry. If her husband had sheep, the widow shall take them.
18. No one, whether man or woman, shall, on his sick-bed, give away more than
three shillings worth of his property without the consent of his heirs, and the
woman must have the consent of her husband.
55. When a man dies his wife shall give to his heirs his sword, his horse, saddle,
and his best coat of mail. She shall also give a bed, pillow, sheet, tablecloth,
two dishes, and a towel. If she does not have these things, she shall not give
them, but she shall give proof for each article that she does not have it.
56. After giving the above articles the widow shall take her dower and all that
belongs to her; that is, all the sheep, geese, chests, yarn, beds, pillows,
cushions, table linen, bed linen, towels, cups, candlesticks, linen, women’s
clothing, finger rings, bracelets, headdresses, psalters, and all prayer-books,
chairs, drawers, bureaus, carpets, curtains, etc., and there are many other
trinkets which belong to her, such as brushes, scissors, and mirrors. But
uncut cloth, and unworked gold and silver do not belong to her.
DOCUMENT 9
M. N. Srinivas, Indian anthropologist, observations on an Indian village,
compiled while living in Rampura during the late 1940s C.E.
“Sex difference provided an important basis for the division of labor, and this
was true for all the castes. Among the castes the kitchen was the recognized
sphere of feminine activity but the extent of participation in man’s traditional
occupation varied from caste to caste, and even household to household. The
income of a household, and the degree to which its style of life was Sanskritized,
was also significant in determining whether women participated in agricultural
work or not. Generally, women from the richest households and the highest
castes remained confined to their homes while women from the poorest
households and lowest castes worked outside for cash wages. It was the male
head of the household who carried on the traditional caste occupation, be it
agriculture, blacksmithing, trade or priesthood. And there was an unstated
assumption that his occupation was the important one.
318
FOOTNOTES: CHANGES IN WOMEN’S WORLDS
1. William L. Langer, ed., An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval,
and Modern Chronologically Arranged, 5th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1971), 295-660 in passim.
Chris Cook and John Stevenson, The Longman Handbook of Modern European
History 1763-1991, 2nd ed. (London and New York” Longman Inc., 1987, 1992),
1-29 in passim.
Guida M. Jackson, Women Who Ruled: A Biographical Encyclopedia (New York:
Barnes and Noble Books, 1998), in passim.
2. Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, The Human Record: Sources of Global
History, 3rd Edition, Volume 1: To 1700 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1998), 147.
3. Stuart Schwartz, Linda R. Wimmer, and Robert S. Wolff, The Global
Experience: Readings in World History, volume II (New York: Longman, 1998),
270 – 272.
4. Mark B. Rosenberg, A. Douglas Kincaid, and Kathleen Logan, Americas: An
Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 180 – 181.
5. Proverbs 31: 10 – 31, The New American Bible.
6. Bernard Lewis, ed. and trans., Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the
Capture of Constantinople, vol. 2, Religion and Society (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1974), 40.
7. Helen Hemingway Benton, ed., The Annals of America, Volume 12, 1895 – 1904:
Populism, Imperialism, and Reform (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.,
1968), 394.
8. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval
History (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1907), 592 – 601 in passim.
9. M. N. Srinivas, The Remembered Village (Berkeley, California: University of
California Press, 1976), 137.
319