As in most Eras in history, to be born female would have been a very different life as to how we, as women, live today. The Elizabethan Era proved this point.
A young woman was in complete submission to her father or older brother, and then to her husband. Although some did obtain licence for midwifery, most women worked within the home and had very little freedom when compared to today. Strangely enough, when a woman married, she became mistress of her own household which gave her a little authority over the servants and the household expenses. Whatever the wife had was really owned by her husband, but this also meant that her debts her husband had to pay for.
A great deal of marriages were arranged for financial or nobility reasons. Only the Poor could afford to marry for love, they had nothing to lose!
Childbirth was a normal part of a woman's life, and if she was lucky enough to live through the ordeal, as well as the ignorance of the doctors, to have ten or more children and / or pregnancies was not unknown. Mortality was high and, like the Tudor Era, it was amazing that as many women and babies lived as is recorded in the history books. As always, the richer the family the woman was born into, the easier the life for that woman.
It is strange to think that a woman very successfully ruled England at this time, and yet women, by Law, were not allowed very much freedom; no woman was allowed to go into Parliament, be a doctor, have her own business, or (possibly) even own her own house. Being so successful within her reign, Elizabeth 1st gave women hope that life could and would be very different one day!
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