The effect of XI. cent. western philosopher Hildegard Von Bingen to the Medieval world of Mediterranean in the context of gender

It is a grim reality that there is no doubt that the women were regarded inferior to the men in ancient and medieval world. However, it is a well-known fact that the women managed to get out of the traditional roles attributed to them by the society and proved themselves in various fields. One of these fields is without doubt philosophy. In this master thesis, a general analysis of women philosophers from the antiquity to the European Middle Ages has been made. In this regard, the struggles of ancient and medieval women who did not accept the traditional definition of being "a good woman" made by the society have been broadly underlined. Even though being a woman is a knife edge situation in Medieval Europe where a a new faith and order were being established, some women nonetheless did not abstain from defending their ideas publicly. When it comes to gender equality, Hildegard of Bingen was one of first philosopher and prophetess to handle the gender issues after the famous philosophers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle. The main target of this thesis is to examine the views of Hildegard on gender and to make a general overview on the gender in the Medieval Europe, particularly in the XII. century. In this sense, the social status of women and women philosophers both in antiquity and Medieval Europe have been touched and commented upon briefly. The women philosophers of both ages have been examined and the place of women in the context of gender in these times has been evaluated. The primary purpose of this study is to contextualize the feminine in the time of Hildegard based upon her views on gender in her works. In line with this purpose, three main works of Hildegard of Bingen, primarily her opus magnum Scivias (Know the Ways) as well as Liber Vitae Meritorum (The Book of the Rewards of Life) and Liber Divinorum Operum (The Book of Divine Works) have been evaluated accompanied by the modern bibliography and accordingly an attempt to comment upon her ideas on gender has been accomplished.