World Civilizations: The Role Of Women Throughout The Centuries

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Trey Dailey Dr. Robert Griffin World Civilizations 17 April 2017 The Role of Women Throughout the Centuries In the very beginnings of civilization, women played a very important role in society. From the Paleolithic Society, stretching until the times of the empire. Of the many contributing factors, the idea of a Patriarchal Society had the largest influence on the role of women throughout these early times. This mindset even continues to play a role into modern day politics and societal standards. Though women began as an integral part in society, as civilizations began to be established and developed, they found themselves second to men who ultimately became the standard for leadership. During the evolution of civilizations and governments, …show more content…

Realizing that they could domesticate plants and animals, the humans no longer had to forage nearly as much. Referring to my previous paragraph, it is noted that the women and children were responsible for foraging plants and other supplements to a meat diet. With this in mind, it is likely that women were the catalyst for the idea agriculture and domestication. Because they were so familiar with them, women knew the life cycles of plants, and the effects of environmental elements such as sunshine, temperature, and rain, growing plants was very easy for them. The men, however, instead of just hunting animals and eating them, they brought them back to their community and fed them and helped them to breed. In doing this, both the men and women contributed to agricultural economies. One of the main benefits of agricultural is that you have a lot of supplies to feed more people. This lead to steep population growth. This is important because as the population grew, villages and towns began to emerge. Because they didn’t have to forage any longer, the Neolithic people began to settle into one location. Once they settled, they began to create technological advancements to help their communities thrive. However, not every was as well off as certain members of this society. Having a lot of people in one community, and being able to produce a lot of goods and food, means that some members of the community were able to build up great wealth. This lead to the development of different socioeconomic classes. As we see communities and cities begin to develop, women are becoming less relied upon because there is no longer this need for them to provide the sustenance of the small communities that once existed. Now, there are much larger groups of people in one concentrated area, and plenty of food to feed everyone due to

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