By Any Other Name

The England of Emilia Bassano’s time was ruled by a powerful woman, but law and custom offered few rights and protections for most women in society. In general, women in the Elizabethan era were expected to be subservient to men. They could not inherit titles (with the exception being the crown) and were raised to become homemakers and mothers. Both medical science and religion of the time enforced these ideas. Medical knowledge, stemming from the Greeks, supported the belief that women were the "weaker sex“ and needed direction from men. Religion was also used to justify male control. Though there are “conflicting messages about sex and gender in the Bible, it was deployed by Early Modern English society to enforce the idea that women were in need of domination and stewardship by men” (Garcia). In her poetry defending Eve, Emilia Bassano points out that this misogynistic understanding of the Bible is not necessarily supported by the text, but these ideas were still widespread.

Women of the middle and upper classes were often educated in this era, partially inspired by the example of Elizabeth I. However, despite an education, the expectation was still that women would marry and bear children. The girls in Emilia’s school represent this