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The piece on the longer reading list by Crawford
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and Mendelson on Women in Early Modern England
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has an excellent lucid discussion of
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these issues in its opening chapter,
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especially the medical attitudes towards women at the time.
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So, as a result, any failings which were observable in women
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were attributed not to their unequal opportunities
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or their restricted education
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but supposedly their natural weaknesses,
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and the fact that many men also shared these weaknesses
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was conveniently overlooked.
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Well, the official view of the church on all of this was again