The duty of women to have children creates a bias against them. Many laws for women and writings about women relate to their job of childbearing. It is their most important responsibility and also what gave them less freedoms then men. I will explore this fact in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome using the writings of Sappho, Aristotle and the scribe Any.
The first laws regarding women that we have record of was Hammurabi’s code. In Hammurabi’s code it states that a man may only take a second wife if the first wife has born him no children (law 144). This shows that the most important role of women was to have children. The only purpose of the second wife is to bear children so that the man can pass on his family name. This idea is reinforced by law 145 which states that if a man does take on a second wife she will not be equal to the first wife. The Sumerians were very intense about passing on their genes and having children as soon as possible because life was very unsure for them. The Tigris frequently had violent floods which could wipe out entire crops and kill many people.
The Egyptians on the other hand could rely on their river more and women also had more leeway. To them marriage was considered a partnership and women were allowed to own property and represent themselves in court. “In A Scribes Advice to his Son”, the scribe Any writes “It is a joy when your hand is with her”4 in reference to his son’s future wife. Life was less volatile so men had time to appreciate their wife’s for something more than the children they can bear. Although their main job was still to have children, as shown by Any writing “take a wife while you’re young that she make a son for you”4, once women had a couple of kids they gained a ...
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...irgins gave their women a little more freedom. The Sumerians, for who life was unreliable, had to have children right away and also didn’t give their women very much freedom while the Egyptians, for whom life was more reliable, again gave their women more freedom.
Works Cited
1Aristotle. “On a Good Wife”, from The Politics & Economics of Aristotle, Edward English Walford & John Gillies, trans., London: G. Bell & Sons, 1908.
2Bernard, Mary. Poems by Sappho.
3Davis, Williams. “Xenophon: On Men and Women” from Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-1913.
4Lichtheim, Miriam. “A Scribe’s Advice to his Son” from Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
5Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Gender in History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2011.
...c. 4). This is an example of one of the seven unequal relationships in Confucianism. Much of the social structure of classical China was based on Confucian ideals (Doc. 3). In Greece the relationship between a husband and wife also very unequal due to her young age and lack of education. Alone a woman had no political rights and limited legal powers therefore is was necessary for a husband to provide for his wife much like a father would (Doc. 6) A woman would learn house hold management and eventually produce heirs. These two similar systems of social roles was not a benevolent system. It did not take into account the welfare of individuals, particularly woman who had little power to leave in a bad marital situation. However by insuring that people know their place, which kept them in line, classical societies were more prosperous and able to run more smoothly.
Recently in my class, we have been discussing different civilizations and how women were treated during that time. While reading the books, I was able to read things and relate them to notes that I had recently taken. Something in particular that I found that correlated was in chapter four of the book. This chapter talked about women’s role in Athens, which was motherhood. We had just talked about this in class, and how men were able to divorce women with no public humiliation, if the wife was not able to conceive a
Ancient Sumerians general thoughts of women varied based on where you were looking. For example: if you looked in Egypt women held many rights and were pretty close to equal to men, but if you looked in Mesopotamia, where the book was held, you know that women were thought of as property. In Ancient Sumerian time the women were thought to be very fertile not just in the sense that they could create life but also in the since that women could do more than that. For example: one of the goddesses that they talked about in the Epic of Gilgamesh is called by the name Aruru the goddess of creation. The book says the gods cried to Aruru,” You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.” As said in the book the Gods did not cry to a God they Cried to a Goddess meaning she was the one and only one who created life in the way that the Gods wished. When it comes to Mesopotamia and the time of the Ancient Sumerian people the women were mostly thought of a property but it was not really portrayed that way in the Epic of Gilgamesh. There was no middle class for the women; they were either very important in the book or they were thought of as
Both civilizations relied heavily on farmers being the life of the civilization and providers of food and other useful materials. Though farmers were essential for each of the civilizations, in both, they were at the bottom of the social ladder. However, in Egyptian society farmers can have their children learn a different skill, such as to become merchants and craftsman, and eventually, with a slight slim chance, get into the ruling class. This was not the case in the Aryan civilization as each person was born into a caste and could not move up or change their level in the caste system – the order being Brahmins (the priests and king), Kshatriyas (the warriors and aristocrats, the ruling class), Vaishyas (the cultivators, artisans, and merchants, and the Shudras (the peasants and surfs). Another major differentiation is that women did not have many rights in the Indian civilization, only men could own land and receive an education. Women were solely responsible for bearing children and maintaining the household. On the other hand, Egyptian women enjoyed a much higher status and greater independence then women elsewhere in the ancient world. As Ramses II declared “The foot of an Egyptian woman may walk where it pleases her and no one may deny her.” In comparison to the women of the Indus River Valley, Egyptian women lived the high life, as Egyptian law allowed for women to inherit property, enter
Societies included in Documents 3, 5, & 7 treated women in ways that were not too beneficial, yet not too harmful. Mesopotamian Society’s laws had a varying treatment of women, ranging from suicide simply due to accusation of infidelity, to receiving child support (Document 3). The Spartans
Henrik Ibsen once said, “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”(Notable Quotes) Ibsen’s statement exemplifies what life was like for women during ancient times. In many of the organized ancient civilizations, it was very common to find a primarily patriarchal civilization in government as well as in society. The causing factors can be attributed to different reasons, the main being the Neolithic Revolution and the new found dependence on manpower it caused. As a result of this, a woman found herself to be placed into an entirely different view in the eye of society. In comparison to the early Paleolithic matriarchal societies, the kinds of changes that came about for women due to the introduction of agriculture are shocking. Since the beginnings of the Neolithic era, the role and rights of women in many ancient civilizations began to become limited and discriminatory as a result of their gender.
A woman was not seen as being equal to a man. This is clear in the laws dealing with marriage. Women were contractually obligated to remain with their husbands only, while their husbands were permitted to have a mistress or second wife. If a woman was caught with another man, she would be drowned (“The Code of Hammurabi”). Another thing that shows that women were not equal to men is the fact that they could be sold into slavery by their husbands at any time. Women did, however, have some rights such as the right to own property and the right to inherit and pass down that property. They also played very important roles in society. Some of these roles included shop owners, bakers, or scribes (Judge and Langdon,
In modern day society, female gender roles are defined in several of forms; ranging from the stereotypical concept of women being the primary caretakers to women being the dominant sex. After analyzing two sources of past literature, two iconic women represent personas of both social standings. In the literary works “Genesis” of The Hebrew Bible; along with, “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes, impactful phenomena take place in the era of these women.
In ancient Greek society women lived hard lives on account of men's patriarch built communities. Women were treated as property. Until about a girl’s teens she was "owned" by her father or lived with her family. Once the girl got married she was possessed by her husband along with all her belongings. An ancient Greece teenage girl would marry about a 30-year-old man that she probably never met before. Many men perceived women as being not being human but creatures that were created to produce children, please men, and to fulfill their household duties. A bride would not even be considered a member of the family until she produced her first child. In addition to having a child, which is a hard and painful task for a teenage girl in ancient civilization to do, the husband gets to decide if he wants the baby. A baby would be left outside to die if the husband was not satisfied with it; usually this would happen because the child was unhealthy, different looking, or a girl.
The struggle for women to play an important role in history can be traced from the ancient Mesopotamians to the 1900’s. There has been a continuous battle for women to gain equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. Women have been viewed as anything from goddesses to unwanted servants throughout history, regardless of a variety of changes in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. The Epic of Gilgamesh might lead one to consider the roles of women a small and insignificant part compared to the man 's role. In fact, three women; Shamhat, Ishtar, and Siduri, were able to create and maintain a civilized Mesopotamian society with using their uniqueness of their body, mind, and spirit.
Greek and Roman women lived in a world where strict gender roles were given; where each person was judged in terms of compliance with gender-specific standards of conduct. Generally, men were placed above women in terms of independence, control and overall freedom. Whereas men lived in the world at large, active in public life and free to come and go as they willed, women's lives were sheltered. Most women were assigned the role of a homemaker, where they were anticipated to be good wives and mothers, but not much of anything else. The roles of women are thoroughly discussed in readings such as The Aeneid, Iliad, Sappho poetry, and Semonides' essay.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 1997. 800-836.
Most women in Babylonian society took the role of an obedient wife first and foremost. Because Hammurabi’s Code lists a compilation of laws, most of what the primary sources depict about wives and women in general consists of actions or attitudes that should be avoided by women for fear of punishment. One behavior that the law code focuses on to a great extent consists of adultery or the coveting of spouses, an act that the Babylonians had very little tolera...
The role women play in today’s society is a drastic change from the previous role. Women used to be confined to the superiority of the man. Physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, belittled, embarrassed, and silenced. These are just a few examples of the emotion from the isolated treatment of the past. A woman’s role in today’s society is more valued than ever before.
Women’s ability to get pregnant and give birth lead to the idea of virginity. In the ancient world, virginity for a woman became an ideal in many different societies. However, some societies such as ancient Israel, created stringent policies relating to women and virginity, whereas other societies like ancient Egypt, did not place a value on virginity. Virginity became important because it was a way for a woman’s family to show her husband that she had not been taken: “Virginity became proof that a girl had been “protected” from invasion, and the role of protector was increasingly assigned to her male family members and guardians” (Morris 45). A virgin daughter could bring wealth to her family or require a large dowry, which caused worry