In 1675, Louis XIV Established the Parisian Seamstresses’ guild, the First Independent All-Female Guild Created in Over 200 years.

Reading Passage Question

In 1675, Louis XIV established the Parisian seamstresses’ guild, the first independent all-female guild created in over 200 years. Guild members could make and sell women’s and children’s clothing, but were prohibited from producing men’s clothing or dresses for court women. Tailors resented the ascension of seamstresses to guild status; seamstresses, meanwhile, were impatient with the remaining restrictions on their right to clothe women.

The conflict between the guilds was not purely economic, however. A 1675 police report indicated that since so many seamstresses were already working illegally, the tailors were unlikely to suffer additional economic damage because of the seamstresses’ incorporation. Moreover, guild membership held very different meanings for tailors and seamstresses. To the tailors, their status as guild members overlapped with their role as heads of household, and entitled them to employ as seamstresses female family members who did not marry outside the trade. The seamstresses, however, viewed guild membership as a mark of independence from the patriarchal family. Their guild was composed not of family units but of individual women who enjoyed unusual legal and economic privileges. At the conflict’s center was the issue of whether tailors’ female relatives should be identified as family members protected by the tailors’ guild or as individuals under the jurisdiction of the seamstresses’ guild.

“In 1675, Louis XIV established the Parisian seamstresses’ guild, the first independent all-female guild created in over 200 years” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions checks the candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

1. outline a scholarly debate over the impact of the Parisian seamstresses’ guild
2. summarize sources of conflict between the newly created Parisian seamstresses’ guild and the tailors’ guild
3. describe opposing views concerning the origins of the Parisian seamstresses’ guild
4. explore the underlying reasons for establishing an exclusively female guild in seventeenth-century Paris
5. correct a misconception about changes in seamstresses’ economic status that took place in Paris in the late seventeenth century

2. According to the passage, one source of dissatisfaction for Parisian seamstresses after the establishment of the seamstresses’ guild was that

1. seamstresses were not allowed to make and sell clothing for all women
2. tailors continued to have the exclusive legal right to clothe men
3. seamstresses who were relatives of tailors were prevented from becoming members of the seamstresses’ guild
4. rivalry between individual seamstresses increased, thus hindering their ability to compete with the tailors for business
5. seamstresses were not allowed to accept male tailors as members of the guild

3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following was true of seamstresses employed by relatives who were members of the tailors’ guild?

1. They were instrumental in convincing Louis XIV to establish the seamstresses’ guild.
2. They were rarely allowed to assist master tailors in the production of men’s clothing.
3. They were considered by some tailors to be a threat to the tailors’ monopoly.
4. They did not enjoy the same economic and legal privileges that members of the seamstresses’ guild enjoyed.
5. They felt their status as working women gave them a certain degree of independence from the patriarchal family.

4. The author mentions the seamstresses’ view of guild membership as a “mark of independence from the patriarchal family” (lines 40-41) primarily in order to

1. emphasize that the establishment of the seamstresses’ guild had implications that were not solely economic
2. illustrate the conflict that existed between tailors and their female family members over membership in the tailors’ guild
3. imply that the establishment of the seamstresses’ guild ushered in a period of increased economic and social freedom for women in France
4. provide an explanation for the dramatic increase in the number of women working as seamstresses after 1675
5. indicate that members of the seamstresses’ guild were financially more successful than were tailors’ female relatives protected by the tailors’ guild

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