Read the passage from Elizabethan Women. At the time, women were required to be utterly subservient to men, given limited education and career choices, and subjected to stringent rules of etiquette and dress. Queen Elizabeth herself is quoted as saying: "Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married." Elizabeth remained single throughout her life because marrying would have meant giving up her autonomy as monarch. The fact that even the queen had to take such measures to protect her access to self-governance illustrates the harsh plight of upper-class women of the time. According to the passage, of all the areas of an Elizabethan woman's life, the one that was most responsible for the woman's lack of independence was .