The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 2021.

Patriarchy existed in the medieval period, writes Dr Barr in chapter 6 (‘Sanctifying subordination’), just as it continued to exist in the modern era.  But patriarchy  is not the same in each era.  It is a shapeshifter.

Where did the idea come from, that ‘a woman’s place is in the home’?

Not from the medieval period, Barr tells us.  At that time, singleness and virginity were virtues for women.

No: it was in the early modern era that the ‘cult of domesticity’ became established.  Enlightenment thinking and early modern science regarded women as weaker, both physically and intellectually, to men.  They were therefore more suited to domestic life.  Furthermore, the Industrial Revolution, while providing work opportunities for women, hardened the gender divide, and kept women’s wages down so as not to entice them too much from their duties as wives and mothers.

By the early 19th century, the main components of the cult of domesticity become apparent: (a) piety; (b) purity; (c) submission; and (d) domesticity.

And, says Barr, it is precisely these characteristics that are valued so highly in ‘biblical womanhood’.  Women are made to care for the home and family, while men are created for leadership and public work.

Barr reflects on how evangelical women today describe themselves (“Wife…mom…”) and compares this with how she thinks medieval Christian women would introduce themselves (“Servant of God…visionary…defiant virgin…dragon slayer…”).

But even preaching women in the 19th century had to conform to patriarchal expectation by arguing that their very character as women suited them to pastoral work:

‘“Pastoral work is adapted to women, for it is motherly work,” explained Methodist preacher Anna Oliver. “As a mother spreads her table with food suited to the individual needs of her family, so the pastor feeds the flock.”’

But

‘What evangelicals have failed to realize, explains historian Randall Balmer, is that the “traditional concept of femininity” that we believe to be from the Bible is nothing more than “a nineteenth-century construct.”’