Social+History+Chart+Race+Class+Gender


 * Social History**


 * || **RACE** || **CLASS** || **GENDER** ||
 * **Our current understanding and when/how it developed** || The idea of categorizing people based on skin color and other physical characteristics didn’t become common till the 18th century || The current categories of working, middle and upper class weren’t developed until the 19th century (the industrial era). They are categories based mostly on differences in wealth || Concept that grew from women’s movement of the mid-late 20th century “Sex”= biological differences between men and women, “gender”= differences between men and women that are based on the culture of a place/time ||
 * **Situation in the Renaissance** || * People in the Renaissance thought in terms of what we call a “people” or “nation” (i.e. the French race, the educated race)
 * Although they did not use the same terminology, they did make distinctions among people based on skin color || * In the Middle Ages and continuing in the Renaissance, social differentiation was based on function in society
 * Three estates/orders: 1st) those who pray (clergy) 2nd) those who fight (nobles), 3rd) everyone else || * “debate about women” began at end of the 14th century- debate over female character and nature. There was interest in the debate among the general public as well as the intellectual elite
 * By the 16th C debate also covered issue of female rulers. Which was more important in determining if a woman could rule- gender or class? No female ruler’s authority was successfully challenged, perhaps because (like Elizabeth I) they tended to promote masculine qualities in public
 * Strict gender roles greatly influenced behavior of common people
 * “True man”= head of household so status lowered if unmarried
 * women’s work never seen or valued as supporting a family (even if it did) so pay was lower (money or food) ||