Women's Rights In Ancient Greece

Today there are many equal rights between men and women. Women now have the right to vote, the right to work in law, and the right to participate in many other things. Now imagine a place where women could not leave the house without permission from their husbands, women could not enjoy dinner parties with their husband’s guests, and if their husband decided to leave them, take their children, and go, all they could do was accept it. This was the life of almost every single woman in ancient Greece. Men had the power, and the rule, while the women had to respectfully obey everything men demanded.

In most Greek homes, women lived mainly on the upper floor. The upper floor consisted of a few bedrooms, a slave room, and a Gynaikon. A Gynaikon was

specifically for women and children, and if a man would force his way into this room, “the insult would have been unbearable” (The British Museum). This obtrusion of privacy was regarded as highly disrespectful, and dishonoring to women, and the man who did this “would have faced very stern punishment for such a dishonorable act” (The British Museum). The ground level of the house surrounded a courtyard. The courtyard lots of times had a well in it, along with an altar to one of their gods. The lower level also included a kitchen, a storage room, a slave room, and a workroom. These rooms were typically only used by slaves for their daily duties. There was a bathroom, and also a room called an Andron. The latter was set aside for men only. This was where many dinner parties were held, and the only women that were ever permitted in here were either servants or female entertainers (The British Museum). The way these households were set up show the separation, and discrimination between genders.
As children, men and women were brought up differently. Both men and women were taught school, but what they studied, and how much they studied, varied on gender and where they lived. Boys in Ancient Greece were seen as more powerful, thus creating a reason why boys should receive a better education. Most “young boy’s usually had their own tutors who taught them math, writing, and military training.” but as boys grew older, “...they were also taught music, literature, astronomy, and rhetoric” (Greek Education). On the other hand, young girls were normally only educated in reading, and writing, but no other subjects. Girls were typically “taught skills that would help them be good homemakers” (Greek Education). They were taught things such as cooking, sewing, how to correctly care for children, along with a lot of exercises, so they would have healthy children who could serve in the army. Remember, all of this is true information, but depending on where they lived, girls could receive better educations and were even given light military duties (Greek Education).
Women in a sense were “on a short leash” when it came to freedom. Overall, women were “expected to be subservient to the will of their husbands… (Plato’s View of Gender Equality). Women were always under the protection of a man, whether they were a child, “In childhood, she was the ward of her father,” or they were an adult, “later she was the servant of her husband. As a widow she would be under the protection of her son (Plato’s View of Gender Equality).” Women had virtually no freedom whatsoever. They were many times relied on as servants, and even if they weren’t, they were not treated with respect and did not have very much power to do what they pleased.