Back in the time of the Elizabethan era the role of women was very limited and it was not so fun. Personal relationships where very unbecoming of a lady unless she was married. Marriage was considered sacred unlike now a days were you get married one day and divorced the next. A woman had to stay married no matter what happened. There were no exceptions, even if the husband beat his wife nothing could be done about it. The worst part of it all was probably the wifes social life because if they were to lose their virginity before marriage they would be shunned by society and would bring shame to their family.
As it pertains to personal relationships your parents would decide whom you would be able to see and whom you couldnt. The type of people who parents would mostly pick would be people with high stature in society or people with lots of money. For example a merchant, a knobble, and tradesman. Not to many women would be lucky enough to get a good husband, many times they would end up with a abusive husband or they would end up with a ugly husband. But if any woman would so much as kiss one to many guys it would be unthinkable what they might have done to her.
The woman might be banned from the town or in some cases she might even be killed. Marriage was a process that was more or less like ownership. For the man, his role in marriage was to provide food and shelter. The womans role in marriage was to cook, clean, and obey her husband. If the wife did not obey her husband, which was most unlikely, he would probably beat her and deign her food. No matter how harsh a husband was or how much he beat his wife there was nothing that could be done about it. The reason for this was because divorcing was considered breaking the vows taken at marriage would be unheard of.
The only thing women could do was to pray for a good fair husband or try to get through the beatings. In conclusion things have changed allot for women from what they were like back in the Elizabethan era. Women now get to choose whom they want to be with and how many of them they want to be with. In society women came from being just better than slaves to the best thing next to millionaires. Marriages no longer last if the husband is abusive. For some reason women stand up more now a days were a couple of hundred years ago they did as they were told.
