Men And Women: The Role Of Women In Ancient Society

Since the beginning, during the time of Adam and Eve, our race has been trying to figure out how men and woman should function in relation to each other. Although men and women have been looked at as equals in the more recent years, it was not always this way. Although the level of freedom varied somewhat depending on the society, men have consistently held an advantageous role over woman in history. Ironically, the status of women seemed to steadily decline over time until more recent times. When people were hunters and gatherers it is likely that women and man often worked side by side, sharing similar tasks and rights. As civilization began, however, the role of the woman shifted more and more towards the home, while men were able to participate in the government, trades, and the military, shifting them further away from the home. As religious ideas became more developed and caste systems developed women became more and more separated from the government and culture. This pattern, generally speaking, seems to encompass most of history until modern times. Woman in Ancient societies, for example, were often limited in their rights, as well as looked on as inferior to men. In ancient Greece and Persia, for example, women were given very little freedom and lived under the guardianship of a male relative until marriage. In the highly political and democratic society of the Greek Polis Athens women were not allowed to participate in the government in any way. Women were