Did men and women have the same role in the medieval age?

Answer 1

No they did not. In fact, women's lives were very restricted in most cases. Women were not expected to go to school (although a few wealthy families taught their daughters at home) and their one role was to be a wife, and then a mother. There was no access to birth control, so women were expected to have many children. Upper class women were taught music (many could sing or play an instrument), and some wealthy women supported the arts (they funded poets or artists or musicians). If there was a party or social event, an upper class woman would serve as the hostesses, while lower class women did the serving and cleaning. Peasant (poor) women were taught household skills and also encouraged to help their husband or father with chores such as milking cows or weaving cloth. And in all cases, the woman was the property of her father, and then her husband, under the law. Some women were treated well, but sadly, many were not, and there was not much they could do about it.

Men were expected to be the protectors of women; if there was a war or local conflict, it was the men who went off to fight. And depending on whether they were in the upper class or not, the men were usually the ones who worked outside the home in some occupation or skilled trade, or if they had no skill, they performed harsh manual labor. Upper class men owned land, and supervised the peasants who worked on it. Men from the lower class also had limited access to education, but they would have been taught a trade so they could support and feed their family. Some men did not marry at all-- they joined the church and lived a religious life. (Some women did this as well. One of the few places where a woman might have any authority was at a convent, where a woman would be in charge.)