Differences Between Spartan Women And Athenian Women

The ancient Greek world did not have a single, unified culture but rather a collection of different ones within the various poleis or ‘city states’. Two poleis whose cultures greatly varied were Athens and Sparta and this is reflected by the lives of women in these cultures who were influenced by them in different ways. As a result of this, there are many ways in which Spartan women were different from their Athenian counterparts. The main differences between Spartan and Athenian women stem from the fact that Athens was largely more conservative which, in turn, led to women playing a more traditional role.

The type of education that Spartan women received made them different to their Athenian counterparts. Cartledge discusses this, explaining that “Spartan girls undoubtedly were educated in a sense other than

Namely, through receiving a different amount and type of education which gave them different skills, marrying at an older age which would have given them different responsibilities, having the ability to inherit and own property, having more of an influence politically, being more free socially and women of lower classes in particular having different tasks to carry out. So, in summary, it can be seen that Spartan women played more of an active role in society, had more freedom and were better respected than their Athenian counterparts. A notable issue with primary evidence surrounding this topic is that it was written by men, so it is impossible to gain qualitative information about how women felt about their position in the society. An issue with Greek Tragedy in particular is highlighted by Gould, who states that plays are “the product of a man’s imagination and addressed to men”. As a result of this, the information we do have is written by men so cannot be an accurate depiction of the lives of either Spartan women or their Athenian