The Significance of Powerful Women in SGGK

I know someone else wrote a post about the role of women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but I feel like there's so much to say on the topic. Lady Berdilak, one of the most cunning and influential characters in the story, yields an enormous amount of power over Sir Gawain, which is significant because it demonstrates the power woman can have over man. She engages in intellectual exchanges with him, and nearly always emerges as the victor. Even more importantly, Lady Berdilak gives Sir Gawain the green girdle, the ultimate symbol of power – after all, it gives him the ability to evade death. However, by doing so, it is implied that she has tainted Sir Gawain. Before accepting the girdle, Gawain was defined by his knightly honor and his inherent faith; afterwards, it seems that he has lost his honor by not giving the girdle to Sir Berdilak, as was their agreement. Lady Berdilak deters Gawain from his knightly honor by tempting him with the tantalizing promise of life. Morgan la Fay/the old crone is another powerful woman in this story, and is perhaps one of the strongest characters in all the story, for it is she who causes all of the events to transpire. The powerful role of women in this story illustrates the paradigm change between Beowulf’s and Sir Gawain’s time, from being viewed as little more than peace-weavers to actually having substance and wills of their own.