Introduction
The ongoing emancipation of women has been an important development since its first efforts in the 12. and 13. century. When we look at present-day society there are still some obstacles that have to be overcome and gender equality is still not fully established. Nevertheless, western society in particular has come a long way, by taking major steps towards remedy of social and political shotcomings. In the last hundred years of the early modern period, however, there were still severe inconsistencies when it comes to gender equality in society’s judgement as well as legislative and judicial approaches. A poem that took on those injustices was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Epistle from Mrs. Y(onge) to Her Husband, in which Montagu …show more content…
Women on the other hand, as Montagu rightfully criticizes were seen as passionless beings. Unfaithful men were not shamed in public, but rather encouraged by the fact that prostitution per se was seen as unavoidable, as it was ironically protecting the chastity and fidelity of a group of women, while demoting another group of women, the prostitutes, to the margins of society. While those women were seen as the most disgraceful beings under the sun, their clients were publicly acquitted because of their sex. As observed, this societal state was discouraging women from marriage and encouraging them to secrecy, as it is portrayed in the Epistle from Mrs. Y(onge) to Her Husband. Women were not only disadvantaged in the court of public opinion, but also juristicially. As they were often forced to give most of their belongings to their husbands and had to live on a small pension without the chance of getting remarried. While wives had the chance to counter allege their husbands of cruelty and adultery to help them defend in the adultery cases, they were still unable to obtain a parliamentary divorce and remarry. Their right to receive alimony could be withheld, when they were proven to have committed adultery. It would be interesting to investigate the course of change in the double-standard towards women from the 18th century to present days. While surely there are stil some instances today were a sexist double-standard operates, it would be foolish not to appreciate the changes that have happened over the last couple of