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The Role of Elizabethan Women in Society
Elizabethan woman were raised to believe that they were inferior to men.

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A man was considered to be the head of a marriage, and he had the legal right to chastise his wife. However, it is important to understand what this "headship". That the husband was able to command his wife to do anything he pleased, If a husband felt the need to chastise his wife, then he was not allowed to be cruel or inflict bodily harm. If he did abuse his wife, then he could be prosecuted or prevented from living with her. There was no divorce (as we know it) in Elizabethan times

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Women were expected to stay at home and manage the household duties.

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Upper-class wives, with a houseful of servants to tend to domestic matters, often had much more free time. The most popular activities of such women were writing letters, singing, dancing, strolling in the garden, playing with dainty little pet dogs, and poring over needlework—everything their education had prepared them for. Although some wives subsisted on the pious diet of religious sermons and the Bible, one upper-class woman spent an entire evening in her husband's chamber reading Turkish history and the poetry of Chaucer.

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Disobedience was seen as a crime against their religion. The Church firmly believed this and quoted the Bible in order to ensure the continued adherence to this principle. The Scottish protestant leader John Knox wrote:

"Women in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man."

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When the Prince of Arragon arrives, Portia carefully addresses him with all the deference due his position. She calls him "noble." But after he has failed and has left, she cries out, "O, these deliberate fools!"

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Women weren't allowed to attend school

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The only career open to all Elizabethan women was marriage
a wife's job was to run the household and help her husband in whatever he did.
Poor women's work was spinning and weaving.

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She is a practical women who tends to make the best out of a bad situation

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"Ay, tha'ts a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk o his own horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can shoe himself. I am much afeard my lady his mother played false with a smith'

Portia is joking here that the Neapolitan prince talks so much of his horse that she is scared his mother had an affair with a blacksmith.

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The only career open to all Elizabethan women was marriage; a wife's job was to run the household and help her husband in whatever he did. Her work varied according to his. The tasks of a farmer's wife were "to go or ride to the market to sell butter, cheese, milk, eggs, chickens ... and all manner of corn. And also to buy all manner of necessary things belonging to a household.

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women were expected to marry. Most marriages were arranged in order to ensure financial stability or gain through the dowries and alliances between families. Women were also expected to have children. Wealthy women, in particular, were expected to produce a male heir, as all inheritance was passed through male lineage and female relatives were not permitted to inherit land or titles.

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Portia is in a unique locale with her position as a single incredibly wealthy female without a male reigning over her. Portia is a character with fierce autonomy and an astonishing sense of self.

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"Women were not allowed to enter the professions i.e law, medicine, politics, but they could work in domestic service as cooks, maids etc, and a female painter. Women were also allowed to write works of literature, providing the subject was suitable for women: mainly translations or religious works. Women were not allowed to act on the public stage or write for the public stage. Acting was considered dishonourable for women.. In Shakespeare's plays, the roles of women were often played by young boys."

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There were no Elizabethan women in the Army or Navy

Elizabethan women were not allowed to act in the theatres  (but women at court wereallowed to perform in the Masques)

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"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven" ....
Before telling everybody in the court that if Shylock spills Christian blood, he would break the law, and by doing that taking everything from him, she first gives him a chance. She makes a huge speech about forgiveness, how it is like a "rain from heaven", how good it feels, etc. This shows that she isn't only smart but also generous and kind. However, Shylock didn't listen, so she made him face the law.

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The primary roles of women in the time of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) were to marry and have children. Primary roles aside, privileges permitted to women depended largely on where in Europe they lived and whether they were wealthy or not.

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The entire ring plot is Portia's idea, and she and Nerissa relish the prospect of the jest at their husbands' expense. Bassanio swears over and over that he never gave his ring away to another woman (and he is more than a little embarrassed to admit that he gave it to another man), but with a fine sense of comedy, Portia plays the role of the "angry wife" just as well as she played the role of the "learned young lawyer" at Antonio's trial.

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Elizabethan women could not become Doctors or Lawyers

Elizabethan women did not have the vote and were not allowed to enter politics

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Portia's characteristic as a women which she presented herself with her charming beauty and intelligence, but not only her beauty and intelligence were shown in the play but also her honesty and braveness that she dare to share her opinions about what she likes and dislikes just like when she encounter the prince of morocco, even though she dislikes the prince of morocco, but she still addresses him with all the deference due his position.  But after he has failed and left, she cries out,"O, these deliberate fools!".

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Elizabethan women were not allowed to enter University

Elizabethan women could not be heirs to their father's titles ( except female royals)

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there were women who were highly educated.  However, women were not allowed into the professions; they were permitted to write literature, providing the subject was suitable.

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Women were considered the weaker sex and in need always of being protected.  When married, women were expected to bear children, for childbearing was considered an honor.  Most women bore children every two years, but because so many children died, families were not large.

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Portia judge people from their looks. When Prince of Morocco comes to her, she judge about his dark skin

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Elizabethan women were tutored at home - there were no schools for girls

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The Elizabethan women who were commoners would not have attended school or received any formal type of education. Elizabethan women would have  had to learn how to govern a household and become skilled in all housewifely duties.

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"And you must cut this flesh from off his breast.The law allows it, and the court awards it."
Here even though Portia knows that if Shylock cuts Antonio's "flesh" he will have to face the law and give up his property, she doesn't tell him that. And instead makes him more excited, so in the end Shylock won't be able to stop, take the money which were offered to him and leave easily. She wants to give Shylock a lesson.

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" Here: what would my lord?  "Portia is more confident in herself since she dressed like a man and also the fact that she wanted nererssa to call her "Lord" a word which is asociated with power for the male genderthus makeing it look like that she had more power when dressed up as a man.

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Women were allowed to marry from the age of 12 in Shakespeare’s time, but often only women from wealthy families would marry so young. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is 13, but her mother says by that age she was already married with a child.

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The only exceptions were widows - women whose husbands had died. A widow was in charge of her own life and property, but would be likely to marry again to find someone to protect her and to be the legal guardian to her children.

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LAUNCELOT Father, in. I cannot get a service, no; I have ne’er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to, here’s a simple line of life: here’s a small trifle of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man: and then to ’scape drowning thrice, and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed; here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear. Father, come; I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the
twinkling of an eye.

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"Tarry a little."....."if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood,..... thy lands and goodsAre by the laws of Venice confiscate"
This  emphasizes her wit. When nobody else realized it before, she came to the rescue. She actually did save everybody. Unless for her, Antonio would have been dead, even though she might not have done it out of sincere motif, which would have been to save Antonio, but out of her love and inability to make Bassanio love her more than Antonio.
o It is a turning point in the play. The turning point is a result of Portia's actions, this shows that she is a very important character.

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Portia is a discerning/clever women who has strong self confidence and is able to make judgement what and when ever she wants. An example of this would be her comments on the suitors :
"If I could bid fifth welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other four farewell,I should be glad of hid approach. If he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me"

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"Elizabethan women were expected to bring a dowry to the marriage. A dowry was an amount of money, goods, and property that the bride would bring to the marriage. It was also referred to as her marriage portion. After marriage Elizabethan women were expected to run the households and provide children."

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Women were not allowed on the stage. All the female parts in plays at the time were played by boys whose voices hadn’t broken yet – the apprentices. In several of the plays the female characters disguise themselves as men – so the audience would have seen a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. This happens in Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice.

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In Elizabethan times women belonged to their fathers (or their brothers if their father died), and then to their husbands. Women could not own property of their own.

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