Women In Ancient Greek Civilization

Due to their continuously increasing population, the Incas had an endless demand for cloth. Every year a government official would inspect the ten-year-old girls in the town, and take with them only the best-looking so they could devote themselves to the state. The most beautiful of the girls were chosen for sacrifice to the gods, while others weren’t as lucky and labored for the state, learning trades like cooking and brewing. Mostly these women learned how to spin for cloth. After four years of effective indentured servitude these girls would be reassigned as concubines of the ruler or, if the ruler saw fit, as the wives of men the ruler wanted to honor. Sometimes they would be kept as administrators and remained permanent residents of Acllahuasi. The lower class women were assigned to labor, if they weren’t sacrificed, and bound to be chaste for their whole lives. If a lower class woman was found to be pregnant she and her

From birth their father controlled them, and after marriage their spouse then controlled them for the remainder of their lives. Once a woman was married her husband controlled all property. She had no rights to wander through the town, without permission. Respectable women were not to be seen in public. Greek women had basically no political rights of any kind and were controlled by men their entire lives. Men spent most of their time away from their houses, while women dominated Greek home life. A wife was in charge of raising the children and making the families clothes. In a slave-based economy large numbers of female slaves were available to cook, clean and perform other labors. Only in the lowest class homes was the wife expected to do these duties without help. Society dictated that women should limit her time outside the home. Even visiting with a female neighbor was really the only appropriate time for the woman to leave her indoor