LEARN FROM HISTORY?

I have been feverishly writing a new historical novel, and the research has pointed to an interesting fact:  all the women were bred to marry for the purposes of power or child rearing.

SO glad I didn't live in Medieval or Renaissance Europe.

When the role of women is seen simply as baby makers, individuals and societies are worse for it.

In Genesis, it says that God created both men and women in God's image–in the tselem of God. In Hebrew, the word means "representative figure". Even back then, the writer wanted to communicate a revolutionary truth: To a culture where women were considered property to be traded for goods, to an ancient world where women had no rights at all, the writer of Genesis proclaimed that both men and women are divine image bearers. So, as Lisa Sharon Harper states, both men and women are endowed with the inherent dignity reserved for royalty.
She is sure that there's a relationship between the theological stance a society takes on women and girls  and the level of poverty and violence in that culture. It's proven true, whether in the West or the Middle East. Later writings begin the male dominion theology, but the role for women started out pretty fairly.

My story, SAVAGES, The Legend of Petit Jean, has a heroine born into French nobility who does not fit the mold. She goes along with the petty rules of etiquette at the court of Louis XIV until she makes a fatal faux paux.

Then she's out of favor and shunned by those who were her friends the week before. Does she get impregnated as soon as she can by any male with influence? NO.

Out of options and never one to let life roll over her, she makes a crucial decision:
follow her love to New France DISGUISED AS A CABIN BOY.

More tales to follow.