Audience Finds Feminism's Roots In The Renaissance

Some people argue that feminism began with Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul, suffragettes rallying, rioting and inducing hunger strikes for the sake of women's rights. Some believe that feminism began around the 1960s and 70s, when women were burning their bras and singers like Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell were singing arguably political songs like "Big Yellow Taxi," a Joni Mitchell song about the environment and corruption.

But in the Class of 1947 room at the Homer Babbidge Library Tuesday afternoon, Sarah Ross from the Princeton Society of Fellows discussed a different kind of feminism. The lecture, "The Renaissance Origins of Feminism: Women Intellectuals and Patriarchal Culture in Italy and England," sponsored by the history department, discussed women in the time of the Renaissance and how they existed as individuals in a predominantly patriarchal society. There were some very important topics that, if retained at a younger age, could be understandable when referencing a high school history textbook. The lecture talked about strong women in a time where women were viewed as feeble, weak and unintelligent, so learned and intellectual women such as Queen Elizabeth I were either considered witches or described with very masculine characteristics. The lecture had many insights into what it was like for a woman to be a thinker in a time when only the men carried the validity of the spoken word.

The lecture, although very interesting, had some points in which it lulled and was thought to be dragging, and was not well received by all viewers.

Thom Blake, a 1st-semester communication major, visited the lecture and was not impressed.

"I thought that by coming here I would understand women and their fight a lot better; it just seems to be that all we are doing here is learning about things we talked about in high school," he said. "I feel like I'm not getting everything out of it, maybe."

Others found the lecture fascinating. Todd Urich, a 3rd-semester history major, learned a lot.

"It was really awesome, I didn't think I'd like it, mainly I guess because I'm a guy, but the things that she talked about were pretty cool," Urich said with a laugh. "Although now I kind of feel bad for women."

Jen Guzman, a 1st-semester art history major, was thrilled with the lecture.

"Oh, I like a lot of feminism, I'm very into knowing when and where and how women got their strength in a world that almost forever was dominantly male," Guzman said. "I thought it was really great that they brought in someone to discuss it, even if it wasn't about American feminism."

Contact Melissa Vega at

Melissa.Vega@UConn.edu.