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Not in God's Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victorians
"[This book] aims at presenting a close-up picture of the lives of ordinary women from different social classes: of their status, social roles, degrees of freedom or tutelage, and of the mental conditioning which has survived to leave its residue in the attitudes of our own time..." -- from the Foreword
362 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2012
Julia O’Faolain was a novelist strongly concerned with the condition of women; in this volume, she compiled original historical sources in a work of research that would inform her later novels, most obviously the medieval drama Women in the Wall. It is by no means a systematic history, just a collection of excerpts, arranged roughly thematically. However, the claim in the introduction that "The book differs from others recently published in that its aim is not polemical" is an exaggeration, for many of the editorial contributions do indeed contain polemical comments. O’Faolain was not a professional historian, but her coauthor, her husband Lauro Martines, was (he specialized in the Italian Renaissance). Given that, I might have expected a little more theoretical sophistication and nuance than I found in the writing -- for instance, the sentence in the introduction, "The double standard had no other basis" than to insure "incontestably legitimate" heirs "and neither had the practice of keeping women in relative subjection and seclusion;" or the uncritical acceptance of the now-abandoned idea that there was a prehistoric period of matriarchy. Of course, we must keep in mind that this book appeared in 1973, and thus had as yet very little basis of feminist scholarship to draw on.
In the selections dating to antiquity and the middle ages, sources are pretty much limited to legal codes, rare court cases, and religious or medical pronouncements about the fundamental nature of woman. This leaves us lacking insight into the patterns of daily life, such as an anthropologist would like to have: for instance, we learn that the houses of ancient Athenians had separate secluded living quarters for women if they were large enough, and we have a mention of a two-storied house where husband and wife slept upstairs and the children and servants downstairs, but there is hardly enough material for an anthropological analysis of the ways that domestic space shaped life and thought. It is an unavoidable part of presenting extended texts, however, since the necessary evidence would be scattered and largely archaeological.
The variety of material available increases over time, and begins to expand enormously by about the 17th century. It is at this point that the book abandons any attempt to be generally representative, and instead becomes a scattering of interesting examples, with some chapters being more like case studies: for instance, the discussion of prostitution centers on an analysis of the 18th and 19th century police records in Paris, and the gradual expansion of women’s legal rights in England during the 19th century is seen through the lens of the life and writings of Caroline Norton. The arrangement of these chapters is guided by one of the chief structuring principles of the book: to attempt to portray a progression of gradually emerging female self-expression and emancipation.
It is obvious that this relatively brief book barely skims the surface of the material that might have been included. In spite of its shortcomings, it succeeds because most of us don’t have access to original sources at all, and O’Faolain and Martines discovered some really interesting ones; the book tantalizes and raises an appetite for more. It must have long since been surpassed by newer works, but is good for what it is.
In the selections dating to antiquity and the middle ages, sources are pretty much limited to legal codes, rare court cases, and religious or medical pronouncements about the fundamental nature of woman. This leaves us lacking insight into the patterns of daily life, such as an anthropologist would like to have: for instance, we learn that the houses of ancient Athenians had separate secluded living quarters for women if they were large enough, and we have a mention of a two-storied house where husband and wife slept upstairs and the children and servants downstairs, but there is hardly enough material for an anthropological analysis of the ways that domestic space shaped life and thought. It is an unavoidable part of presenting extended texts, however, since the necessary evidence would be scattered and largely archaeological.
The variety of material available increases over time, and begins to expand enormously by about the 17th century. It is at this point that the book abandons any attempt to be generally representative, and instead becomes a scattering of interesting examples, with some chapters being more like case studies: for instance, the discussion of prostitution centers on an analysis of the 18th and 19th century police records in Paris, and the gradual expansion of women’s legal rights in England during the 19th century is seen through the lens of the life and writings of Caroline Norton. The arrangement of these chapters is guided by one of the chief structuring principles of the book: to attempt to portray a progression of gradually emerging female self-expression and emancipation.
It is obvious that this relatively brief book barely skims the surface of the material that might have been included. In spite of its shortcomings, it succeeds because most of us don’t have access to original sources at all, and O’Faolain and Martines discovered some really interesting ones; the book tantalizes and raises an appetite for more. It must have long since been surpassed by newer works, but is good for what it is.
July 28, 2013
A collection of essays, documents, letters and first-hand accounts of women's treatment trough history, from antiquity (Greece,Rome,Byzantium) trough Hebrew and Muslim world to European Middle Ages, Renaissance and late 19th century. The editors - Julia O'Faolain and Lauro Martines have succeeded in making a interesting (although naturally somewhat sad, angry and depressing) story with a point - no matter what society, it wasn't until recently that women were finally recognized as right partners to men, trough thousands of years they were treated as feeble minded cattle who depends on husband/father/brother and suffered without any possibility of lifting their voices.
O'Faolain and Martinez have skipped famous women in history because all those warrior queens and aristocrats are not really representatives of society - they are focused on anonymous women who have lived, worked and shared their destiny with others in sisterhood. Again and again we encounter depressing stories about women who brought their wealth to a marriage, just to have it completely taken by "master" (husband) who had all the rights to enjoy it, spend it, beat her and command her, without any possibility that she actually might have right to say something about the matter. It is not said so openly but obviously religion, church and tradition has a lot to do with it - time and time again women were reminded of Eve's sin and countless Biblical characters whenever situation called for it. Even simple thing as education and literacy took forever to actually be recognized as something positive - for centuries women were kept in the dark and assumed they are better off without any education (since they will spend their lives in the kitchen anyway) - with exception of occasional monastery Abbess who could read and write, thousands of women were living incredibly drab, dull lives, constantly in fear of being beaten up, hungry and left starving by husbands who have right over them. (Either father or husband.) Than the witch hunts and such - not very happy story but somewhere along the way renaissance got things little brightened up and by the time of reformation women's voices were finally heard in public. Unfortunately there was still a long way to go - the last few chapters deal with 18th and 19th century where wealthy women enjoyed nice treatments but working women suffered as much as before - if one was born poor and without a influential friends/family, there was a very thin line between legal and illegal options. Interestingly enough, as the collection deals with legal rights of women as well, here is that I read for the first time that women got right to vote (and therefore have been recognized as equal citizens) only in 1944 - imagine that! - what the book somehow side-steps is the big question of mental conditioning that produced generations and generations of women who actually accepted this treatment and expected everybody else to suffer their position in silence. That should be another book.
O'Faolain and Martinez have skipped famous women in history because all those warrior queens and aristocrats are not really representatives of society - they are focused on anonymous women who have lived, worked and shared their destiny with others in sisterhood. Again and again we encounter depressing stories about women who brought their wealth to a marriage, just to have it completely taken by "master" (husband) who had all the rights to enjoy it, spend it, beat her and command her, without any possibility that she actually might have right to say something about the matter. It is not said so openly but obviously religion, church and tradition has a lot to do with it - time and time again women were reminded of Eve's sin and countless Biblical characters whenever situation called for it. Even simple thing as education and literacy took forever to actually be recognized as something positive - for centuries women were kept in the dark and assumed they are better off without any education (since they will spend their lives in the kitchen anyway) - with exception of occasional monastery Abbess who could read and write, thousands of women were living incredibly drab, dull lives, constantly in fear of being beaten up, hungry and left starving by husbands who have right over them. (Either father or husband.) Than the witch hunts and such - not very happy story but somewhere along the way renaissance got things little brightened up and by the time of reformation women's voices were finally heard in public. Unfortunately there was still a long way to go - the last few chapters deal with 18th and 19th century where wealthy women enjoyed nice treatments but working women suffered as much as before - if one was born poor and without a influential friends/family, there was a very thin line between legal and illegal options. Interestingly enough, as the collection deals with legal rights of women as well, here is that I read for the first time that women got right to vote (and therefore have been recognized as equal citizens) only in 1944 - imagine that! - what the book somehow side-steps is the big question of mental conditioning that produced generations and generations of women who actually accepted this treatment and expected everybody else to suffer their position in silence. That should be another book.
March 7, 2016
school challenge, resolution not reported (1993)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews