Women's Roles In Athens And The Hellenistic Era

Pomeroy explains the life style and ways of Spartan women and the rise to be known and important as the Spartan men. Naturally, we think of Spartan women fierce, brave, queens, and pure. Spartan women took advantage of each opportunity that was heading their way and conquered it with no fear in their hearts. Those women are viewed today as a “force” not to be reckoned with. Pomeroy describes these women as, “Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the devil said, “Oh no, she’s up!”

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? Who held public office? What rules governed the selection of public office holders? How were the two city-states similar in their governmental structures? How did they differ?

In Athens, women were mostly secluded from many things. They could not vote, leave the house without permission from their husband, and more. In Sparta, the rules for women were much more lenient. Spartan women would train with the men and could own land. In both Sparta and Athens, women could marry and raise children.

In school both boys and girls would learn reading, writing, mathematics, basic-combat, and self-defense. Even Athenian philosophers like Plato and Socrates praised this education system. In Athens only the boys were educated for the most part, so most women went through there lives being illiterate. Other then the blatant gender equality issues the Athenian government had many problems as well. Athens may have had a democracy, but that didn't save the, from corruption.

After all, the women that lived there were granted more rights than most that lived elsewhere. They also allowed girls to get an education. They had a pretty good social structure as well with full citizens at the top, noncitizen in the middle, and slaves at the bottom. Probably one the most renowned facts of Sparta is their military strength. The army was incredible, they even beat Athens in the Peloponnesian War.

Between Athens and Rome, I believe Rome had the better system of citizenship. Two different citizenship systems- Athenian and Roman- was the better system? First off, Athenians were extremely tight with their citizenship requirements.

Sparta was the first civilization to treat women fairly. For example, in the book The Politics of Aristotle, Aristotle wrote, “For, a husband and wife being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women” (Doc. D). This explains how Sparta was the first civilization to treat women fairly because gender does not play a part in how many rights and freedom one has. Sparta allowed women to get physical training, just like men. As well, while Spartan men were off at war, they had full charge over their household.

Another example is that every Spartan girl at age eighteen would have to take a strength test. If they pass, they are set up to get married, but if they fail, they were not allowed to marry and lose their civilian’s rights. This shows that Spartan women roles were taken seriously that they would take a test where their life and rights would be at stake. Thus, women roles played a big part in Spartan

Women in The Odyssey Gender roles, specifically of women, were a little different back in 700 B.C. They played more of a typical role, expected to get married and have kids at a young age. They were expected to take care of the house and children, while their husbands were out fighting wars. However, while women in The Odyssey were greatly valued for their beauty, Homer reveals that they also had to be intelligent to be successful in their lives.

Women were thought of as dependents of the father or husband. Women lived in gynaeceum: women’s quarters where they could oversee the running of the home and have very little contact with the male world (O’Pry, 2012). Spartan women, on the other hand, seem to have a bit more freedom and were able to own property. Sparta allowed for women to get educated in the same manner as the males. Sparta had a laid back culture and men were to serve in their military.

Spartan Women were encouraged to become intellectual and strong, they were able to marry and create their families at a much later point in their life, and finally the Spartan women was in way more control of her household, herself, as well as her husband than any other greek women was in history. They were not looked at as second class citizens, their opinions were valued and the woman herself was respected. To put it as simply as possible these ladies were pretty kick ass. Not only were Spartan women beautiful they were also encouraged to broaden their intellectual endeavors. Young girls were given a public education!

Sparta’s women were known for their promiscuity and boldness . On account of Sparta’s strict militaristic lifestyle, their lives were very different compared to regular women in most city-states of Greece. Although their main job is still child-bearing, this job held much more honor and respect because in theory, a Spartan women gave birth to strong, Spartan boys who would in turn become strong and successful soldiers for Sparta’s renowned military . Just as boys were trained to become soldiers from a young age, girls were taught to be the mothers a militant Sparta

The Spartan women were able to own plots of land and run their own households, they even got an education. At Athens, got a little amount of formal education and had less

In the Greece civilization, ladies were not given a position, they were thought to be not as much as slaves. Rome’s general public was separated into

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.