Gender Roles in Ancient Egypt, Rome, and India

In current times in America, the role of women and the role of men is about equal. When it comes to home life, it’s just as common for women to go out and work as it is for a man to do it. Women have even run for President. However, in the Harappan society in ancient India, and in Sumerian times in ancient Mesopotamia, the equality and respect of women weren’t as strong as it is today. Regardless, women were respected to a certain level. Overall, the respect of women in ancient India was similar to the respect of women in Mesopotamia because goddesses were seen as powerful, young women were admired, and women were highly regarded for being able to give birth.

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.

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:

She was expected to give physically financially and emotionally to her family at all times. Roman aristocratic families expected women to have male children so they cold carry on the family name and also expected the wives to be perpetually pregnant. The women from the lower classes did not have to have as many children due to the financial situation of raising a large family. They were expected to work outside the home to help support them. If a roman man decided to expose of a female baby he was allowed to do so and the woman had no choice but to allow it. The reason for this was that girls could not carry on the family name and a dowry was expected of them when they married. (4)

Classical China and India both had established and organized patriarchal society in which different gender roles had stemmed. For instance, in China the head male figure, such as a Father, was always in charge. This probably evolved from constantly respecting their elders and the role that women obtained in classical agricultural societies. India likewise, they had a strong tendency to put males in charge—in the Indian caste system, women were always at a lower rank than men. Even though they were important and respected among society, women were still encouraged to worship their husbands like gods. All of these structures that Classical India and China had standardized contributed to them being an organized patriarchal society.

It’s not hard to see that women were treated far worse than men were; this is just because the men never thought of them as equal and that was just the way it would be. Women in China were definitely treated like slaves as compared to Roman women who were given a little freedom; Chinese women would have to obey their husbands and had to make sure that their chores like cooking and cleaning were done by the end of the day. “In Rome women were treated inferior, but the men of the empire would always look after them; they would always have a male guardian with them most of the time,”(Ramirez et al 179). Chinese women were ordered around constantly and would never even think about disobeying their husbands. Roman women were treated more like precious gems; their husbands made sure that they avoided contact with men other than family members, they wanted to make sure their wives stayed pure and faithful to them at all times.

Women in Ancient Rome enjoyed a slightly better life than those in Ancient Greece. Roman men "placed a very high value on marriage, home and the family and this made quite a difference to society's treatment of women" (Thompson, 2005). Women still were passed from their father's supervision to their husbands, but enjoyed a more important role. While women could not hold

Therefore, general assumptions to one extreme or the other on the status of women in the ancient world of Rome are difficult, because theory and reality were often far apart. For example, whereas Greek men usually regarded their wives as unimportant, Roman men placed a high value on marriage, home and the family and this made a difference in the way society treated of women.

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,).

Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted. Intriguingly enough, despite the customary submissive role, women had a more multifaceted role and image in society as juxtaposed with the rather simple role men played. Morals for the two were also different. Men obviously had the upper hand with women being the traditional passive.

An example of gender inequality of men can be observed in the culture of the Persians, which had assisted them in upholding their massive empire. For instance, as mentioned in The Histories: Customs of the Persian, it says in terms of being brace in battle a guy is measure in his manliness through the number of sons he presents, and each year the king gifts to the man who does such. They school their sons from the age of five to twenty in mainly three things: horseback riding, archery, and telling the truth. The boy does face their father until the age of five. This is done so if he dies while growing up he won’t cause grief to his father. These features of the Persians had played a significant role of how they acquired a large kingdom which can be seen in The Persian Empire Under Darius I’s Map (pg.67). This tactic of using men for their advantage in gaining imperial power had deprived them of their chance to take part in other interests

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

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

To each society, there is its own set of rules. Many of these rules separate the women from the men or the children from the adults by creating certain duties for each individual. There are many comparisons between the women of Islamic and Roman societies. The roles that are given to these two groups of women show what is expected of them as a wife, the mother of the family, and where they stand politically.

From prehistory to 1450 CE, in many different and complex civilizations, religion has influenced the gender roles of many societies. From prehistory to 600 BCE, in Mesopotamia, women could own property, maintain their dowry, and even trade. However, from 600 BCE to 600 CE, in Rome, women were completely under the control of their paterfamilias. Than, from 600 to 1450 CE, in the Byzantine Empire, women were constrained to their homes, and when they went out, they had to wear veils over their faces. Religion influenced the gender roles of many societies and civilizations from prehistory to 1450 CE.