In Elizabethan England, when Shakespeare was alive, women were not allowed to act in plays because it was considered an unfeminine and unsuitable profession. The reasoning behind this comes from the idea that performing on stage contravened acceptable models of feminine behavior. For a start, women were generally excluded from the private arena. They could not work in many professions, including law or medicine. With the exception of widows, women possessed no legal rights and were technically the property of their husband or father. Furthermore, it was considered an overtly sexual act for a woman to perform on stage while men watched from the audience. This contradicted the (socially-prized) ideal of female purity and chastity.
It was only with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660—forty-four years after the Bard's death—that the law was changed to enable women to work in the acting profession.
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