Women For Women And Women's Rights Of Women

Women in Athens had no political rights whatsoever. Politics were entirely in the hands of free men. In fact, even slaves had more rights than women at this time. Women couldn’t inherit property, nor could they appear in court as jurors. Women didn’t have the opportunity to commit most crimes, as they were not allowed to participate in public life. Instead, they were expected to stay home and take care of the house.

In every facet of life men and women are isolated from one another. Women were intended to stay within the confines of their home, rarely leaving except on special cases. The best Greek woman was one that no one knew about because of the fact that they were never supposed to leave the house. Women were solely intended to be controlled by men and remain in the home to provide for their husbands. In addition women did not bear much value to society, and were not much more than slaves under the wing of a male counterpart. Marriage in the Ancient Greek world also did not bare the equalities we see today. Women were required by law to remain loyal to their husbands and were never allowed to leave the house without his permission. Men on the other hand could have relationships with multiple women or mistresses despite the wife’s disapproval. In The Bacchae we begin to see the contrast between genders when King Pentheus thinks that it is a disgrace for him to have to dress of and disguise himself as a woman. "Do I have to be demoted to a woman?...A woman's costume? No, I won't; I can't"(Bacchae 50-51). Coming from the king, his beliefs reflect that of his people and city of the troubles and negativity women were faced with

Women in Athens lived in a society dominated by men. They had very few rights and essentially, there was nothing equal about it. The education of Athenian women was to say the least, lacking. Unlike men, they weren’t taught in school by actual teachers. They were taught at home by their mothers or tutors of some sort. Much of their education focused on household skills and many men viewed women as being inferior. Women were held back from participating in the sports that were ever so popular with the men.

The ancient Greek world does not look favorably on women. Women are seen as docile, unintelligent, and domestic. Placed socially below men, they are locked into tending to household duties and to their children, and can not go out without a man. Women are not expected to be educated or participate in political discussion, with the exception of knowing just enough to be able to be entertaining at a dinner party and not embarrass her husband. Lacking in political and social rights, women do not have many chances to hold a political or social lime light, and are expected to stay in the background while the men took the forefront. However, there are a handful of texts in Greek literature that showcase the opposite, and put female lead

In Sarah B. Pomeroy's influential monograph, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (1976), it is pointed out that in the past, when scholars have considered the quality of life for women in classical Athens, they have often subjectively selected the type of evidence to use for their argument. She argues that `optimists,' who are of the opinion that women enjoyed a comparatively liberated lifestyle, focus upon the prominent role that women play within art and drama. `Pessismists,' on the other hand, base their ideas upon Athenian laws and the writings of orators and moralists (Pomeroy: 1976; Just: 1989). The evidence that we have available regarding women `relate to different levels of reality' (Humphreys: 1983; Just: 1989), therefore the sources pertain to different aspects of women's lives and need to be pieced together to provide a clear picture.

During this century, women were present, but they weren’t thought to be nor do much where they lived. This idea was common amongst almost every civilization during this time. In Greek civilization, they had this attitude towards women. In Ancient Greece, women had very few rights, especially compared to those of their male counterparts. Women were unable to vote, own land, and inherit things. They were also not allowed to run for any position in office, nor attend public assemblies. Some women during this time were also prostitutes. The

During the early era of the Golden age and late of Classical age of Ancient Greece, from the years 520-321 BC womens roles were significantly different between the two mainly Greek city state Athens and Sparta. These roles that the women presented had huge differences in a way women were portrayed in their societies. Both cities were very different in many ways, the females were raised very differently, and had different duties they had to perform. For example if you commit adultery by Spartan women it was considered tolerated and encourage in their society on the other hand adultery in Athenian women was not even considered and substantially have very few consequences. Unlike the Spartan women Athenian women were treated as unimportant citizens in a lot of ways. They were classified into three different classes. The lowest class which were considered as slaves, the citizen class, and the Hetaerae which were considered as prostitutes, but they were allowed to have education and go to marketplaces, and have rights. With Spartan women they were taught to read and write, also were expected to protect themselves and the children since men were barely around. They were definitely different from other Greek cities and were mainly raised to act as warriors because of the responsibility of owning and protecting their homes. These womens had three considerable lifestyle differences how they were raised , How were their marriages, and what responsibilities they had. These will serve

Athenian society was very dynamic in many areas while it was strict in regard to the treatment of women. Although Athenian women were protected by the state and did not know a different way of living, they were very stifled and restricted. The only exception was slaves, and heteria, prostitutes, and this was due to the fact that they had no male guardians. Since these women were on there own they had to take care of themselves, and therefore were independent. In a more recent and modern way of viewing the role of a woman, independence and freedom to do as one likes is one of the most important aspects of living. In Athens the wives had none of this freedom and the prostitutes did. Who then really had a “better”

But in the Spartan society, the woman had a dignified position just because they were the mother of the famous Sparta worriers. The Athenian women were also not allowed for education or to educate themselves. Men were the only ones allowed in the schools. They also wore clothing that completely covered their bodies and was not able to walk where they

Athens and Sparta although very different, in every way, still shared some common aspects and laws when it came to women. Although we have seen that Spartan women had some form of independence when it came to politics, property and education, they were still controlled when it came to marriage and child bearing. We can see a similarity with this, in the Athenian women who had no control whatsoever, over who they married and to whom they must bear children to. In Athens, the female would be given by her male kyrios (most likely her father, sometimes her brother, at this stage of her life) in marriage with a man. And even once she was married away, she still had no say in what happened next. Sometimes her father could force her to leave her husband, hence dissolving the marriage.

The title of this book, “Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves” is written in order of the ranking of women. In classical antiquity, in some aspects, a whore had more freedom and rights than a married upper-class woman. This alone is evidence of the degree that women in classical antiquity were oppressed. Classical Greek Athenian women and Roman women had similarities in their life styles and expectations to become wives and mothers, but Roman women developed minor freedoms throughout the duration of the empire that Greek Athenian women did not possess. The only known exception to this are the women of Sparta, who had a unique level of freedom in the Greek world.

Women’s role in Greece can be seen when one first begins to do research on the subject. The subject of women in Greece is coupled with the subject of slaves. This is the earliest classification of women in Greek society. Although women were treated differently from city to city the basic premise of that treatment never changed. Women were only useful for establishing a bloodline that could carry on the family name and give the proper last rites to the husband. However, women did form life long bonds with their husbands and found love in arranged marriages. Women in Athenian Society Women are “defined as near slaves, or as perpetual minors” in Athenian society (The Greek World, pg. 200). For women life didn’t

In Athens, Ancient Greece, it was hard to be a woman because women were not only considered the weaker sex next to men, but also had very little rights, “Our noble magistrate, why waste you words on these sub-human creatures…” (Aristophanes 199). The women of Athens around 400 B.C.E. were mainly seen as sexual objects and housewives, not by only the men, but the women themselves. This shows in Aristophanes writing:

The women of classical Athens were confined to their assigned domain the home or the oikos and were rarely, if ever, allowed to leave this space. Women were strictly segregated from any men that they were not related to after they were married, passing from their father or guardian’s home to that of her husband. In the home there were distinct women’s and men’s quarters, often separated by the courtyard. The women had total control of running the household and maintained it with prudence

Imagine being a woman in an ancient society. A society where are considered weak and vulnerable, females aren’t allowed to work outside of the house, have no education, and continuously get disrespected by men. This was the reality for all women in Greece no matter their social class. Ideas like feminism, or equality amongst all genders were not heard of. It goes to show that when in Ancient Greece, men had more power within the government, inside the household, and in society compared to women.