Throughout The Past Few Decades, Feminism Has Made A Significant

When comparing power levels and women’s rights, Sparta was a leader in its time. Athens and Sparta, though both Greek city-states were different in the way they operated. More specifically, Sparta was different in the way that they treated their women. Athenian woman were treated quite appallingly compared to the standards of today’s women. The stem of this difference seems to lie in how these two city-states were governed. Sparta, known for its’ militaristic ways, was an oligarchy and Athens, known for its’ philosophers and thinkers, was a democracy. Sparta’s oligarchy was ruled by a counsel of 5 men, on being a lawmaker or giver. The lawgiver’s name was Lycurgus. Lycurgus was

In no other city-state did women enjoy the same freedom and status as Spartan women. As a military-driven society, the Spartans realized that “regardless of gender all Spartiates had an obligation to serve the militaristic end of Sparta.” With this focus in mind, women were allowed more freedom, rights, and independence. Spartan women were

But in the Spartan society, the woman had a dignified position just because they were the mother of the famous Sparta worriers. The Athenian women were also not allowed for education or to educate themselves. Men were the only ones allowed in the schools. They also wore clothing that completely covered their bodies and was not able to walk where they

The Spartan social roles and government were very exquisite, proper and always knows their positions. At the bottom of the scale there where the Helots. The helots had so little to no rights that it was okay if their owners killed them. The helots were usually obtained or captured by the Spartans when out in battle. Helots were used as property and served their masters. Except they were not following what the man said. They followed what the women said due to the fact that men were fighting in wars and boys were training. Citizen males over the age of thirty were allowed to vote. The women were allowed to become citizen; as well they just did not receive the same rights as the men might have. Though the women in Sparta did have the most freedoms. They were allowed to own their own properties, they did not need permission to go out of the house; all because of the respect the Spartans had for mothers, also because the men were always in war. Lastly there was the Gerontes. They were the citizen males who were rich and over the age of sixty who had the most rights. One could only become a Genonte after surviving war. So, women could not become a Genonte due to the fact that they were not allowed to join the military and because they were not male.

Respectable Athenian women seldom left their homes. Only men could purchase goods or engage in soldiering, lawmaking, and public speaking. The societies of ancient Egypt and of the Greek city-state of Sparta provided a rare contrast. Both Egyptian and Spartan women could own property and engage in business. According to Dr. Peter Picone, the author of “The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian” states “the Egyptian women seem to have enjoyed the same legal and economic rights as the Egyptian man”. Also he states that legal rights were on a class boundary more than a gender boundary. The Women of Sparta on the other hand were quite different from the women of their neighbor, Athens. As you well know, the women of Sparta were bold, freer, and well educated. Also with the Sparta women, everything depended up money, which would determine your rank in society. While some of the Spartan citizens have quite small properties, others have very large ones; hence the land has passed into the hands of a few. And this is due also to faulty laws; for, although the legislator rightly holds up to shame the sale or purchase of an inheritance, he allows anybody who likes to give or bequeath it. Yet both practices lead to the same result. And nearly women held two-fifths of the whole countries; this is owing to the number of heiresses and to the large dowries that are customary. The Women of Sparta on the other hand were quite

Most people think of ancient Athens as the city of freedom and democracy, while they think of Sparta as a highly restricted society. The schools teach us that modern democracies are modeled on Athens, while military dictatorships are modeled on Sparta. However, history shows us that women had much more liberty in Sparta than in Athens. In fact, the democracy of Athens was available only to free men who were citizens of Athens. Moreover, to claim citizenship, an Athenian had to prove that both his parents were "astoi." For the father, being "astos" meant that he was an Athenian citizen, but the mother could not be a citizen. Women were never citizens, but only able to transmit the rights of citizenship to their sons (Perry, et al, 1992,

Women in Athens and Sparta were treated completely different. Women in Sparta were viewed more equally, while the women in Athens were treated like slaves. Women in a Greek city/state known as Athens, were not educated, and were treated the same if not worse than slaves (Athenian, 2005). In Athens, “Women lived in a society completely dominated by men” (O’Pry, 2012). This all ended when the women of Sparta (a Greek city/state) were seen overcoming these issues. The life of a woman in Athens was completely different than a Spartan. Women were treated differently, in Sparta they could manage the land, have their own public opinion, and were treated equal as men, while women in Athens had no public or political rights. Not only was this a big

In Sparta women have an abundance of rights. Duckworth states,”In Sparta women were stronger and they formed friendships with men as they chose. They could also own land by themselves.” Spartans believed that is they give women rights to play sports, own land, and choose a husband, then they would have babies and eventually give them to the Spartan army. This explains why in Sparta women had a LOT of rights.

Although, there are several exceptions. The situation strongly differed when it came to life in Sparta. It is a well-known fact that Sparta was a military state that established its own rules. Women were given more freedom, however, remained in the secondary position in the society. The women had the same responsibilities as men and did not need to be escorted by a man. Unlike the woman in other Greek cities, the Spartan women had the right to take part in the sports competition and take part in the public events (Pomeroy, 2002). It might sound like a little advantage in comparison with the contemporary scope of freedoms women exploit nowadays but of the Ancient times and strict patriarchal construction of society, it was a big step towards

Instead, Sparta thought that women were humans, and deserved similar rights to the men. Due to this, women received some basic military training as a child. Women also were treated with much more respect than the slaves in Sparta (unlike in Athens). Women were also given the right to choose to leave their husband and marry another if he was at war for too long. In Sparta women could also own land and cattle, they could not in almost any other place in Greece at the time. Being a girl this is an amazing incentive to living in

As briefly touched on in the opening paragraph when looking at women in society one must central there focus on a specific group of people of which to examine. The Spartan and Athenian women are the two groups of which the focus is on and its now time take a look at what life was like for them. The first way to do that is discussing the rights that Sparta and Athens women had in comparison to male counterparts and then look at how women felt about what rights that they did or did not have. There are plenty of rights that one could look at but the most important rights to any person are voting. Now voting is an issue that is larger then just a person right to express themselves as an active and concerned citizen but rather one that looks at

When looking at the roles of women in Spartan and Athenian culture it is important to understand the societies that they lived in. By going to an general idea of Spartan and Athenian culture one can see how women were treated and viewed. Then in return contrast the difference of what rights and opportunities were entitled to the women of Sparta and Athens. Studying the role of women is no different then when studying men simply identity their rights, opportunities, and views. Once these rights, opportunities, and views had been highlighted and explained there will be a more detailed contrast of these women.

The majority of women in ancient Greek society were considered second-class citizens, not enjoying the privileges of voting or land ownership. Spartan women were treated differently and were accorded a little more respect than their Grecian counterparts.6 They were educated in the gynaikagoge and had more freedom than other Hellenic women of Greece as they were able

The fight for woman’s rights and equality is still a highly discussed topic today. While women’s rights, all over the world, have significantly increased for centuries, feminists are still present and continue to fight for more. How are women’s rights of ancient Greece, and women’s rights of “Old America”, versus women’s rights in modern day Greece and modern day America, alike and how do they differentiate? Over the course of history, many events have taken place to insure the equality of women. However, many women’s rights activists say that today, we are still not there.

Spartan women on the other hand lived at home. They were in charge of raising their children and “upheld the strict Spartan values,” as the World History and Geography book states. The women were also expected to encourage their husbands and their children to be brave in war. Spielvogel describes a Spartan mother telling her child to “come back carrying the shield or being carried on it.” This showed that the mother had hope that her child would either come home being victorious or die bravely. With this each citizen played a major role during his or her