Ancient Times Women

For thousands of years, men have dominated societies around the world. In most cultures, but especially in ancient times men considered women as secondary to themselves. Men viewed women as a possession and had ownership of them just as one would own a home or piece of property. Traditionally women were not permitted to receive an education but were expected to marry, have children, take care of the home and remain unseen by others. The women of the ancient Greek Minoan and Mycenaean cultures were allowed to hold nontraditional roles outside of the home and at times were viewed as being equal to their male counterparts yet men still considered women as a possession.

After reading The Code of Assura, it is a reliable source of women’s lives during this time. The law has a clear understanding that they honored their wives as queens and protected them from death, rape, and abuse from their husbands. In I.9 stated “If a man brings his hand against the wife of a man, treating her like a little child, and they prove it against him, and convict him, one of his fingers they shall cut off. If he kisses her, his lower lip with blade of an axe they shall draw drown and they shall cut off (The Code of the Assura, c. 1075 BCE).” The law made it very clear that men can’t abuse and belittle their wives. Even though men created the code, I really could tell that everyone was punished equal, not based off gender

Gender roles in ancient Mesopotamia were clearly defined (teachmiddleeast.edu). Generally, men worked outside of the home and women stayed inside of the home while focusing on raising their children and keeping up with work that took place in the home. However, there were exceptions; we know of women who were “bartenders” and even women who were priestesses, but with limited responsibility. Due to the fact that some were from socially higher families and owned large amounts of property, those women were not allowed to marry. Women at the time were given much less freedom than men, however, women were more protected than men, which is seen in Hammurabi’s Code of Law, specifically in his 130th law:

During 1075 BCE, the Code of Assura was created to provide guidelines for men and women to respect and follow. If anyone broke the law, especially the women, the consequences listed would apply. The law code gives an insight on how violent and harsh the Assyrian punishments were while showing their seriousness for following the rules. Whether this law code is fair or not, it can help provide insight to ancient Assyrian women. The law code explains how the women should act, but it does not go into details into what ancient women did daily. However, the Code of Assura only establishes the consequences for the women who breaks the laws while showing how they should live.

The empires of Rome and China were very great ones, they both had many similarities and differences in the way they ran their empires. One major difference was the way they treated their women. Both Chinese and Roman women were unequal in social status than the men of the empires were, but they were definitely treated different in both empires. Women of China were treated quite harshly and were expected to take orders at all times by their husbands, and were to serve them always. This started to happen especially after Confucius died because he taught people to treat each other the same, “after his death women became less free and lost status,”(Arvind 10). Women of Rome were treated like goddesses; they were to stay at home as housewives

This led to justifying male domination over females in the Mesopotamian society. Men were in control and held the power, allowing them to abuse their wives, sell them into slavery to pay off debts, and partake in consensual sexual relations even if married, while women were drowned to death as punishment for committing adultery. In Mesopotamia, women were mostly responsible for tending to the children and household. Women did not have the power to make life decisions for themselves and instead, relied on the men in their family to make those decisions for them.

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.

One of the most striking differences between ancient Athenian women and ancient Egyptian women was the ability to hold positions of power. Egyptian women were monarchs and held other positions depending on their social status. (Capel 1996, 176) Women were allowed to participate in low ranking government jobs, especially during war when the men are off fighting and leaving behind their positions. However, these positions were not kept for long because the men upon return automatically earned their position back by being the superior sex (Watterson 1991,).

Greek Woman was considered to be submissive which means once you are married to a woman, then she is in your full control. The woman in ancient was not allowed to own the property, in one way we can also relate that the woman had fewer rights than the man because they could hardly express their feeling. The woman was not considered as the citizens.

In today’s society, we as women often take for granted the rights, freedoms, and equality we share with men that women in the ancient world were not granted. As all civilisations in the ancient world exercised different treatment towards, this essay will illustrate a few comparisons in the status of women during ancient Egypt with women during ancient Rome. Academic sources will be relied on to provide the necessary actualities when one considers ancient civilizations. The legal status of women in society, the domestic atmospheres and roles that each unique region’s women held, and the possible occupations available to these women, will be discussed.

Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly

One of the oldest beverages known to man is wine, an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes. Wine has been enjoyed all around the world and Ancient Rome is no exception. Ancient Rome played an important role in its history. Wine carried religious, philosophical, and social implications for the Romans as it was a part of their daily life. The popularity of wine and drunkenness in Ancient Rome is clearly portrayed throughout poetry, art, literature and even laws. Although wine was eventually available to all, it’s implications for women were severe. An important connection between Ancient Rome and wine that is rarely discussed is the idea of denying women a right to drink. Today, it is not uncommon or distasteful for women to have a glass of wine but in Roman society, women’s overindulgence of wine was frowned upon. This paper will discuss women in Ancient Roman society and analyze sources from Valerius Maximus and Propertius to focus on how the role of wine reinforced the patriarchal system and oppression of women.

In the beginning of time, Ancient World women’s rights differed according to which civilization she came from. For example, women from Ancient Egypt could own property and sign contracts; there’s even evidence that they could read and write. While, in Ancient Israel the father had control over the family. He could divorce his wife if he wanted and arrange marriages for his children. Even though there were

"They were barred from holding office, while they received no formal education, most could learn to read and write at home. In legal matters, women were represented only by a guardian, while the court did not refer to women by name but only as someone's mother or wife." It seems that women were not an important factor in this ancient society. It appears that they were treated as slaves and animals, more than anything it was just plain

This quote stood out to me, mainly because of the sexism involved. Since this story was based in Ancient Greek, times were very different compared to modern days. In ancient times, women were lower than men and were treated poorly. Men were superior in any way compared to women. This still stands in modern China where it is preferred to have a son instead of a daughter.