Discussion Topic
Women's Roles and Rights in Ancient Greek Society
Summary:
In Ancient Greece, women's roles were largely domestic, focusing on managing households and raising children. In Athens, women were excluded from politics, but held influence through family and religious roles. They could own property, but with restrictions. Spartan women differed, enjoying more freedoms such as property ownership and participation in physical training. Across Greece, women's rights were limited, with societal expectations confining them largely to the home, though these varied by city-state, notably between Sparta and others.
What was the role of women in the Golden Age of Greek society?
Of course, the status of women varied from polis to polis. When we speak of the "Golden Age" in Greece, we are typically speaking of Athens so I will address the role of women in that polis.
Women in Athens played no role in politics so it is easy to think that they had no major role in society. However, women in Athens had power through their roles in family and in religion. In terms of family, women tended to serve as managers of a household's property. They were allowed to own their own property as well, though they were less able to sell or give away their property than men were. In terms of religion, women acted as priestesses and could gain power in that way.
This is not to say, however, that Athenian women were equal to men. Besides the political and legal restrictions on them, there were...
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also social ones. Women, for example, were not allowed the same leeway to have extramarital affairs that men enjoyed.
Overall, then, women were certainly subordinate to men in Golden Age Athens, but they did have some power through their role in family and religion.
What was the ideal role of a woman in ancient Greece?
In most places in ancient Greece, a woman's ideal role was to stay at home and be a good wife and mother to her husband's children. Women did not have many rights. They were generally not allowed to inherit property, own land, or vote. Their husbands had complete authority over them. They were generally expected to remain in the house, although they were allowed out to attend some religious festivals and ceremonies. They were also expected to be faithful to their husbands, although the men were able to philander freely with lovers and prostitutes.
Because of their supposedly inferior status, baby girls were more likely to be abandoned by their parents than baby boys. Girls as well as boys received education in mathematics, reading, writing, literature, and music, but the physical training of girls included more dancing, music, and gymnastics rather than the rougher versions of athletics that the boys engaged in. Unlike boys, women were expected to remain virgins until they got married, which was usually around the age of thirteen or fourteen. The husbands were usually chosen for the young women by their fathers, who also were obliged to offer dowries with the brides.
The ideal roles of women in Sparta were somewhat different than the roles of women in the rest of ancient Greece. Spartan women were educated separately from the men, but they nevertheless engaged in rigorous physical training such as wrestling and javelin-throwing, in addition to dancing and singing. Women were permitted to own property and manage it, unlike the situation for women in the rest of Greece. Married Spartan women did not have to do much housework, as they had slaves to do it. As a part of the famed Spartan austerity, women preparing for marriage shaved their heads, and throughout marriage they kept their hair short.
References
What role did women play in ancient Greek society and did this vary among city-states?
The role of women in Ancient Greece was typically rather circumscribed. Greek women typically had very little role to play in their society. However, this was not completely true in every city-state.
In most Greek city-states, women had very little role in society, particularly outside the home. Women were typically expected to stay at home all of the time. Of course, this would not have been possible for women who were not fairly well-off. Poor women might have had to work and would certainly have had to do things like going shopping. But the ideal was that women would remain in the home at all times except for things like religious festivals.
The main role of women was to bear children. Their secondary role was to care for the children and the home. This could be done either by the woman herself or, among wealthier women, by supervising servants. Women were typically trained for this role from early childhood since they would be married when they were 14 or 15 years old.
There were, however, exceptions. The one of which we know the most is Sparta. In Sparta, women were expected to be much more a part of public life. They were expected to maintain physical fitness. They could own property. They had to do much more in public life because the men were often away fighting or training.
Thus, most Ancient Greek women played very little role in public society, but this is not true of all city-states.
What were the roles of women in Ancient Greece? Did class or location affect their rights?
The role of women was rather circumscribed in Ancient Greece. There were major differences between the roles of women in Sparta and in other parts of Greece, but there was little difference in rights between women of various stations in society.
Women in most of Ancient Greece were very much subservient to men. They were expected to remain in the home at essentially all times. The main role of women was to act as mothers to children and to take care of the house. Women of the upper classes also had to manage the household servants. Women did not have all that much contact with men, even with their husbands. The men were out of the house the whole day and they tended to socialize with other men even when they were home. They were often much older than their wives and had little in common with them.
The main difference between women was between Spartan women and those of the rest of Greece. Spartan women were expected to be involved in public life. They were expected to exercise and be strong. They had much more freedom of movement than women in any other part of Greece did.