First of all one of the most notable developments in this period that gets more pronounced over time is the growth in women's education. Ruth Goodman in "How to be a Tudor" (2015) estimates in 1500 around 5 percent of men and 1 percent of women could both read and write, but by Elizabeth I's reign the percentage of women increased faster than the men. By the time of the Civil War in the early Stuart times, arguably the end of a "Long Sixteenth Century" period of continuity, perhaps 10% of women could read and write according to David Cressy in "Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and stuart England" (1980). It is important to note that the number that could read is definitely higher, because writing was a more advanced skill taught latter, and estimates are gained usually by signatures which establishes writing while reading leaves no definite mark. It is likely that in regional towns, those who could read would read to their families or even to public crowds, particularly from important and popular works or to make particular points.

Following the example of trend setters like Thomas More, Anthony Cooke and Henry VIII himself it became more fashionable for the high class to give their daughters educations in relevant scholarly topics. The primary education of the time was humanist; emphasising languages, religion, history, law and philosophy and secondarily mathematics and cosmography. The general emphasis was on the classical ancient world of Greece and Rome, as well as the expected behaviours of the upper class and a Christian angle. The first book anyone would read, the book that mostly illiterate people with only limited reading skills would have read, would be the Bible. In a very religious time this is crucial. In terms of education, the first tutor of a well-born lady would be her parents. For example. Anne Clifford a well-known educated lady would have learned from her mother who also wrote; such as the Countess' "Book of Praise", a devotional work of sayings which Anne read herself a year after her mother's death to commemorate her. At other times, ladies like Anne, as she records in her diary, would have attendants read to them, either gentle-born companies or trusted manservants of their husband ("Tudor and Stuart Women Writers" by Louise Schleiner, 1994). To actually read with their eyes was reserved for less regular occasions. In a similar vein, women's writing was less likely to be print published (see Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the Counter-Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Italy", Diana Robin, 2007 and “English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500-1625”, edited by Micheline White (2011). When works were published or circulated in manuscript, they had often been written privately by the women years earlier. Formal tutors may occur in a noble ladies life, but they would not have gone to formal schools like Cambridge which were specifically male. Their degree of education was considered more of a choice, for example James I specified his daughter should not learn Latin because it made women "cunning", compared to high class men who were expected to be educated as much as possible.

Aristocratic and gentry women had management of a household staff, leading the physical work by definitely not doing it by hand, as their primary occupation. While men typically exerted much more final say over childhoods, women were generally more personally involved in the childhood of their children. The exceptionally educated Mildred Cooke/Cecil for example was noted as "by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed" by her husband writing to her son Robert ("Little Man, Little Man: Early Modern Representations of Robert Cecil, Catherine Loomis, 2011). The household of the high class has even been described as a matriarchy. Royal mothers unfortunately, had less contact, because royal children were often removed to separate households, particularly the Prince of Wale off in Ludlow. Queen Anna/Anne of Denmark fought with her husband James VI and I for custody of the heir Prince Henry to advance her own matriarchal household. While Henry Frederick was still sent to Ludlow, she was a noted influence on him, prompting his interests in paintings; a relatively novel hobby to collect at the time for which she was a trend-setter.

In this regard, we touch upon hobbies. The main categories are the literary, the artistic, games and textiles. For women who wanted to assert themselves, writing and collecting art was a way of displaying humanist sophistication of the kind associated with men. Games and textiles were more harmless occupations typical of conservative medieval education for women. Finally, gossip was a massive part of women's lives at the time. Given the large extended circles of kinship and homosocial friends that existed at this time, the gossip of women with their relatives and lady-friends could be a significant source of information and cultural impact. Around the "Essex circle" of the 1590's and initial 1600's for example, there was a group of women such as Lucy Harrington Russell, Countess of Bedford who were interested in reading and writing and exchanged frequent letters. The most acceptable sport for a lady was riding, perhaps secondly archery or hawking but never swords or jousting. English women were noted for their leisure time involving riding and their sense of liberty in how they managed their household and hobbies ("Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640" by Katherine U. Henderson and Barbara F. McManus, 1985). The most popular games of this time were game of cards or dice, sometimes for bets sometimes not. Anna of Denmark was also a fan of a variety of other games, as noted by James' cousin Arabella Stuart; "Whilest I was at Winchester theare werre certein childeplayes remembred by the fayre ladies. Viz. I pray my Lord give me a Course in your park. Rise pig and go. One peny follow me. etc. and when I am to Court they weare <as> highly in request as ever cracking of nuts was. so I was by the mistresse of the Revelles [Anna] not onely compelled to play at I knew not what for till that day I never heard of a play called Fier. but even perswaded by the princely example I saw to play the childe againe" ( Sara Jayne Steen, The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart)

Aristocratic and gentry women's lives were quite different from the men, but they had some opportunities and they certainly weren't idle baby-makers even if they were limited.