On Female Perspective Of The Reform Of The Relationship Between Sexes In 16-18 Century England

During the sixteen and eighteen century,there have been experienced the social transformation of modernization in British.In this period,British society has undergone profound changes in various fields,without exception,the relationship between the sexes.Since Britain is still a male dominated society in sixteen and eighteen century,the subordinate status of women could not be intrinsically changed.Due to the British liberal social environment,the change of the concept of gender and the development of British social economy are improving the status of women.The relationship between the sexes,therefore,continued to develop harmoniously.Alan MacFarlane who is an anthropologist in the University of Cambridge said “A more careful reading of the literature produced by travelers would have shown that people were astonished at the liberty and loving treatment of wives at least the sixteen century”.From a new perspective,this article attempts to analyze the relationship between the sexes through the theory of Peace Science.It is expected to provide some useful references for the harmonious development of the relationship between the sexes in today’s society.Besides introduction and conclusion,the thesis consists of four parts.The first part concerns with the the subordinate status of women.In the beginning,introducing the structure of English family.Family is the smallest,oldest and the most powerful unit of sexes.The small nuclear family is the main type of family structure in England.The primary way of its formation is the arranged marriage.Then,it analyzes the performance of the subordinate status of women.It not only incarnated in the marriage system,but also in all aspects of family life.In addition,it profoundly embodies the concept of gender in British society,which would be vividly represented through the matrimonial history of Mary Tudor.All aspects of British society has undergone profound changes in 16-18 century.The gender relations also have experienced the most important changes,which reflected by the reform of the marriage system.The second part mainly discusses the influence of the Reformation to the relationship between the sexes.It is mainly reflected in the change of the concept of marriage,which is mainly executed in the change of the marriage ceremony.There are two kinds of marriage ceremonies in the British society,they are church wedding and spousal.By discussing the process of modifications to both of liturgies,this part aims to reveal the changes of gender roles.The third part mainly elaborates the reform of relationship of the sexes affected by the early industrial revolution.There are two aspects we can analyze the reform of women working condition : work environment and work opportunity.Compared with the Middle Ages,the working environment and the working opportunities of the British women are improving in 16-18 century.It has laid a solid material foundation for the independent economic status of women.The forth part mainly concludes that the harmonious ways of gender relations in British during sixteen and eighteen century.First of all,I would expound the subordinate status of British women in sixteen and eighteen century with the theory of social gender in peace science.Later,analysis of the way of gender relationship harmoniously with the theory of violence in peace science would give some experiences to alleviate the conflicts between the sexes in modern society.