Ancient Egypt's Social Hierarchy

Throughout history, men typically dominated societies. Men have always appeared to have more respect and rights than women, depending on certain civilizations. In societies like Egypt, men were frequently pharaohs and today, are considered to be great rulers. Women were often expected to take the job of motherhood in Egyptian society. Although this was their anticipated responsibility, women, usually upper class and royal, were still permitted to get an education, to possess property, own businesses, have a job and be involved in military control. Women could also rule as pharaoh, which was an infrequent occurrence but did sometimes happen. Hatshepsut, for example, is one of the few women who became a pronounced leader in the ancient

The understanding of gender roles in society has been very fluid in the evolution of mankind. In ancient civilizations, the roles that you were given within a society were centered primarily around gender. These gender roles did vary from civilization to civilization, but were generally comparable. In most ancient civilizations, the roles of women were confined to the household. This was evident in most societies, but a stand out among these was Ancient Egypt. In which, Egypt was one of the only civilizations where women were even remotely equal to men. When comparing to other societies during the ancient time period, women were most respected in Egypt.

Throughout history women have faced many struggles in gaining equality with men. Freedoms and boundaries have been dependent upon the time period, rulers, religions and civilization. Ancient Greek women and Ancient Egyptian women were both equal to men as far as the law was concerned in certain areas; however, their equalities were different in the sense that Greek women were married out of necessity and viewed as property while Egyptian women were respected and loved by their husbands. Ancient Greek women and Ancient Egyptian women also both lived with limitations such as being thought of as domestic servants, yet these views solely depended on the time and polis.

When studied, early complex civilizations naturally settled in groups and developed social hierarchies. Whatever the emerging culture, there must of course be a leader. Whether it is a warrior protecting the group from warring neighbors, forcing his way to the head of the pack, or a wise and eloquent father figure, gently guiding and imparting knowledge to his subjects, in order for a society to function there must be a leader for the people to follow. Jared Diamond claimed that the emergence of social elites and eventually kings were dependent on the establishment or sedentary cultures, according to him, “only in farming populations could a healthy, non-producing elite set itself above the disease-ridden masses?”. (Diamond, 1987)

In Egypt, although men were the dominant gender in society, women were treated with great respect, which led to a very stable and successful society. The Egyptians believed that the goal of life was happiness and viewed home and family life as the main source of it. Egyptian law basically treated women as equals for the most part. Women were allowed to hold positions of power, own property, own slaves, receive an education, and even borrow money. Although Pharaohs were normally men, certain circumstances allowed for women to hold the same title. The Egyptians believed that marriage and family were very important aspects in life. They believed that unconditional love and kindness were vital in a marriage and thought that husband and wife should always treat each other with respect. In regards to family, unlike many cultures that viewed children as another mouth to

Explain the distribution of power in Old Kingdom Egypt and the first intermediate period, the social, political, and economic reasons for the constructors of pyramids, and Egyptian belief concerning the afterlife.

Men had privileges that woman did not have. Some laws protected the women in some ways, for example, “if a man divorced his wife because she did not bear him a son, he had to provide her with money”. (3) Other laws direct to the thought of women being way less than men. Where women’s word does not matter, only her negative actions and they are equally punished. The Mesopotamian government shows more violent solutions to their crimes and the Egyptians themselves.

Even though they both did not share an equal status with the males in their respective societies, ancient Egyptian women did enjoy more freedom and equal treatment, as opposed to ancient Roman women. Despite the fact that Roman women were not confined to their homes, they were throughout their lives subject to the authority of the men in their lives, unlike Egyptian women who did not require a male guardian to act on her

Moving ahead into the great civilization of Ancient Egypt, women and men had typical gender roles. Women were still seen as child bearers and domestic housekeepers and men taught their sons and became heavily involved in civic affairs (“Ancient Egypt”). The treatment of men and women was essentially equal in that woman did maintain civil rights, were given their own tombs upon death, and were even permitted to leave their husbands if necessary (“Ancient Egypt”). This was mainly because all property was passed from generation to generation through women- not men- giving them higher status and importance since Egyptians saw their land as sacred.

In Ancient Egypt, women were looked at as equals to men. Women were in charge of bearing and raising children, but also managing, owning, and selling private property. This private property can be anything such as slaves, land, portable goods, servants, livestock, and money. Women are also allowed to acquire possessions, either as a gift or left from their deceased husband. Typically, Egyptian women got married around the age of 14 and started to bear children right away. Men were in charge of taking care of families, and held a majority of political roles. Both men and women were allowed to work, take ownership of their own belongings, and were equally looked at by

The 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt was a chiefly patriarchal society. It was a civilization in which femininity and power were not even considered remotely connected, because women were not viewed as equals to men (Cooney 227). Consequently, women lived very restricted lives, because it was thought that their place was in the household, away from the public eye and even elite

Social class is an important role in a complex civilization. There are many different people in the social class of Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian Hierarchy was the class system, and each person in Egypt knew where they existed in the system. It started with the Pharaoh at the top, then the Vizier, and Officials. These are part of the upper class.

This gender role gap is much more different than the Ancient Egyptian civilization. While males still had more rights than females, “women enjoyed a higher prestige in Egypt than in any other culture of the ancient world.” This was due to the emphasis Ancient Egypt placed on the quality of life. While Ancient Greece had set social class standing, Ancient Egypt did not portray that structure. However there was a way of distinguishing the wealthy from the poor based on the structure of the house and what it is made up of.

The women nearest to the king had a statue in their honor. The name of the wife of the king was, from the Second Middle Period, written in a sign, and several Old and Middle Kingdom wives of kings were buried in a pyramid.

It is difficult to fully understand the role of women in ancient Egyptian society because the understandings of the society and government are still incomplete. There are also two other major problems, those being that there is very little source material on women, and the material that has been found was biased by the ideas and minds of previous Egyptologists. The only source material that has survived from great kingdoms of Egypt is material that has been either found in tombs on the walls and sarcophaguses, or carved on major government and religious document. None of the writings on papyrus and other delicate materials survived. This material, which has survived, is the writings of the Egyptian literate male elite. In their