Research Paper on:
Early French Modern Society and a Hypothetical Debate on the Status of Women and Men at the Time

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idea, confined certainly to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The idea that feminism has been around for centuries may come as a bit of a shock, but as early as  the sixteenth century feminist treatises were being produced. One wonders what it must have been like to have lived during that time in which the ideas were in their infancy.  What might the debates have been like? For example, one could take the character of Bertrande de Rols from The Return of Martin Guerre and judge how she might have  responded to the treatises of Pollain de la Barre? The Return of Martin Guerre features Bertrande who thought she would never see her husband again. However, when he returns from  the war, she accepts his slightly changed appearance and life continues for her. Unfortunately, she and a majority of the villagers have been duped. The author of this book, Natalie  Zemon Davis does justice to this time period, in that she seems to accurately depict life as it would have been for the various family members. She includes illuminating examples  of rural French life and the societal expectations of women and men. As such, then, Davis uses Bertrande to depict those aspects which were expected from the typical French country  woman. She was portrayed as being virtuous, committed to her family, and obstinately determined to succeed in her tasks. Davis needed to make Bertrande appear to be a woman who  would not so easily be tricked by an imposter so that it leads the reader to wonder if Bertrande suspected all along, but had by that time fallen in love  with the imposter. Interestingly enough, women had more of an equal footing in sexual matters than might have been thought. At least in France, women were considered a part