The Daily Life of an Elizabethan Woman Every decade brings new rights and opportunities for women. Specifically, in the Elizabethan era between 1558 and 1603, women were given little freedom due to the common idea that they were weak and needed a man to take care of them (Thomas). Imagine yourself as an Elizabethan woman in 1560; you have an arranged marriage with two children, a boy and a girl. Your daughter is growing up to be a devoted mother and wife just like you did while your son goes to school to become anything he wants, whether it's a doctor or even a lawyer. As time passed, society discovered the true potential of women, and today women play an important role in politics and everyday life, but they still play the stereotypical role of housewife and mother. Elizabethan England was a male-dominated society ruled by a powerful woman, Queen Elizabeth I. She made powerful decisions, such as founding the English Protestant Church, while most other women made few or no decisions in their lives. In addition to being a mother and wife, English theater and poetry were an outlet for their restrained social life. Women had a strenuous daily life due to their few rights, arranged marriages and inferiority in politics, education and work. From the beginning of this era, men had access to greater rights and opportunities than women. It became normal for women not to be allowed to vote or inherit their father's title, as the next man in the family, whether his son or brother, would. They also could not act in the theater, enter professions, or receive an education (Thomas). Society believed that women were weak and could not perform the tasks of a man. For this reason, women were expected to obey all male relatives, whether ...... middle of paper ...... introduction to Elizabethan courtship." Elizabethan Women and the Poetry of Courtship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.Benson Sonia G. and Jennifer York Stock. "Daily Life in the Elizabethan Era." A traveller's story of England: Interlink, 109. Print. Hilliam, Paul." Elizabeth I: Queen of England's Golden Age. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2005. 38. Print.Papp, Joseph, and Elizabeth Kirkland. "The Status of Women in Shakespeare's Time." EXPLORING Shakespeare. Detroit : Gale, (2003 Student Resources in Context. Web. April 21, 2014. Thomas, Heather. "Elizabethan Women"..2014.