Double standard chastity

Jerome, as always, is very tactful in his approach to women who are no longer virgins. The discussion of men committing fornication and women are very different. The men are portrayed almost as being led astray and the women are portrayed as very fully being aware of the extent of their mistake. It also placed basically all blames of pregnancy on women and essentially freed the man from all blame. The example of men that Jerome presents are all men who had sex in unmoral ways and it is not the loss of virginity that , but for the discussion of women it is a blanket statement about their behavior. Also the discussion of widows being fortunate because they can reassert chastity was rather cruel and weird. Jerome also provides no male discussion that is equivalent to this discussion of women.