Men And Women: The Role Of Women In Ancient Society

Women’s roles has changed dramatically throughout history. By looking at the lives of women, it would be possible to tell how the civilians at that specific period of time were living. In this paper, women’s lives in mainly three civilizations would be discussed, the Sparta, the Athens, and the Hellenistic era.

Today, many of the world’s government structures were based on the principle of one of Greece’s city-states. Greece became a country advancing well before its time, strong in both military and brain power. This country was able to produce two city-states that became foundations to advancing the rest of the world. The first city-state, Athens, is thought to be the first to implement a democratic government while Sparta became known for their military power. While Athens and Sparta provide the world with advancements they differ in the ways of government structures, social motivations, and cultural differences. Athens and Sparta have proven to provide strong governmental structure to help lead to each city-state’s success.

Women’s place and role in the society is something that has been discussed and changed over time. Should their rights be the same as men’s? Should they be superior? Inferior? The world faces a dilemma on weather they should be or not equal as men. It seems like we arrived at a deadlock, where no progress can be made about it. We still have feminists fighting for their rights, but I doesn’t seem to work that much, although they have much more rights than they had fifty years ago. But the question that remains is: what is women’s and men’s role?

Women play a vital role for the human population. Although women populate the earth with humans, women have little rights. During the 1500s and twentieth century, women had little rights in labor and productivity. Women often resided as housewives; caring for children, cooking and cleaning. Often, females did not receive proper education and forced to work in unsafe and sanitary working conditions, such as sweat factories or field work. In the meantime, as plebeian women worked, rich women did nothing and lived comfortably. On the other hand, men received higher education opportunities and high paying employment. Some women who received higher education were usually directly involved with political affairs but they were still subjected to

The Homeric Hymns portray Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and Hestia as strong females who uphold their own beliefs; challenging the “typical” gender stereotypes of the time period. Women in antiquity were expected to follow and uphold certain societal rules, most of these rules emphasized the gender stereotypes that women were perceived as being. The use of the goddesses powers challenge these societal rules and ideas about women. Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, and Hestia are portrayed in the Homeric Hymns in contrast to ancient stereotypical roles of women being confined to the household; as a result this contrast emphasizes that women can showcase strength, intelligence, and power within society.

It is better not to give birth than to have a baby girl as a child. This was an idea that took place way back in the past of Asian culture countries. Boys were tremendously preferred than girls and girls were thought and treated valueless and useless. This ideology is now considered old-fashioned and improper, however, the same concept still lies in the society. In human society, there always have been certain gender roles. Ever since the primitive age, gender roles existed: men went outside to hunt animals and search for food when women stayed inside to take care of babies and cook. Women were hugely dependent on men in survival. As time passed and many societal ideas changed through time, gender roles have changed as well. Women became more

Throughout history, there has always been a rivalry between the two sexes and in the end the women have always come in second place. Time over time it has been proven difficult for women to hold any type of power that they have wanted except for the tasks that they have been given due to their gender. In society and in their own homes, it has been difficult for women to grow and sustain their power beyond the limits that they have been given. Women have been differentiated from men and have been discriminated with regard to jobs and other types of privileges that they have wanted. Throughout the course of history, they have been denied many freedoms that every man has and they want to be equal to their counterparts. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in the United States of America and developed the women’s suffrage. Slowly, women are receiving the freedoms of being their own person rather than this stereotypical woman figure that has been long awaited for because they should already be treated equal among men. The key features that women have been viewed as stereotypical is femininity, care, nurture, maternity, and dependent upon men. Society expects women to have the ideal feminine characteristics; however, women do not always generally have those types of traits and can have some just like men.

In Ancient Greek Civilization, women were viewed as submissive. A man always controlled the women; that either being the Father or Husband. Women were forced to stay in the house and complete all household duties. Women were not even granted the right to attend assemblies, participate in politics, or even represent themselves in court. Having little to no overall power in your society can have a huge burden on Women but this can also fuel certain Women to strive to change the society they live in. Aristophanes Lysistrata and Homer’s Odyssey both show how women can thrive in their society and fight for what they believe in, even if that goes against the gender roles portrayed in Greek Civilization.

The treatment of women has been a topic all throughout history. Women would be treated as lesser beings compared to men. Back in 430 b.c when Oedipus Rex took place, women were not treated equally by men in power. An example of this is when King Laius died, Jocasta did not become the ruler. She had to wait for someone to marry her to have a new ruler. Jocasta wasn 't allowed to rule because she was a women and men thought she needed a husband to guide her. From reading Oedipus Rex, Jocasta would have been qualified to rule because she is smart and cares about the people. Back in the 1700’s when Candide took place, women were still treated unequally by men as well. An example of this is when the Baron would not allow Cunégondé to marry Candide.

Even though women had more independence in Egypt compared to other societies, equality among the sexes was not apparent. There were certain roles in societies that were strictly male or female, causing a limited choice on careers and within the job had certain tasks relating the gender. For example, it was obtainable for both men and women to be servants but within that, they acquired different responsibilities. Men worked with the beer and meat, brewing and butchering it: and women dealt with grounding grain and baking bread. Throughout the kingdoms, an evolution of gender roles in society took place. In the Old Kingdom, musicians and dancers were only allowed to be women, but as the New kingdom approached, the position was open to both genders.

In ancient times, there is a general sense that women were simply items and slaves to their husbands. Ancient Greece specifically has a renowned reputation of favoring men. Men possessed the dominant role in public affairs and events while most women were pressured to stay at home. Very few records extensively discuss women; the records focus mostly on men. Despite the lacking records, it is certain how ancient Greeks viewed their women and their relationships with their male counterparts. Sadly, most of how women lived away from their husbands’ world and how they interacted with other female companionship remains a mystery.

ideas, from God. In this period the ancient Latin expression infirmitas consilii, that means weak judgment, was used to label women.

Throughout the modern world, we mention the concept of equality between men and women and try to equalize their positions in society. It is illogical for women to ask and try to prove that they are equal with men because equality is something that are already given to humanity, but contradicting the role of women by men is what created the gap between them. By looking at history, we can say that accomplishing that goal of making their position equal is not easy. Whenever we start reading a historical context or myth, it is obvious that the role of women is not considered as important compared to men, and women won glory that time when they are mentioned in the arguments the least. If there are women that are mentioned as protagonist, the women usually are described because of their 'outrageous behavior '. However, the role of men usually are described as greatest warriors, heroes, and leaders, whereas the

Different societies view women in different lights. Therefore, a woman’s position is greatly different from one society to the other. The societies in question do not necessarily have to exist at the same time. Even in the same time frame, two societies could exist, where one treat women as equals to men, and another that treats women differently than men, whether better or worse. The societies in question are: Mesopotamia, Greece, China, Rome & Europe, and this essay aims to study different societies’ viewpoints on women, and to compare and contrast them against each other.

Over generations, the role of women in society has shifted and changed immensely, improving upon many aspects of rights and values that women have. The changes occurred gave women opportunities to provide ideas, to have the same rights as men, giving women freedom, leading to many contributions of many significant and valuable events. But from current roles of women being equal to those of men, how women stood in ancient society significantly differs and contrast with ours today. Throughout history, the role and significance of women were always outweighed by the dominance and influence of men. The role of women in ancient times varied throughout, depending on the place and area in the world, in which women had different roles and impacts on their own society. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, and Ancient China all displayed diverse roles of women in their society but among these civilizations, I believe living in Ancient Egypt is the most suitable civilization living as a woman.