Women In Sparta

“Beauty is in the heart of the beholder” H.G. Wells. But does our society today actually care about what is on the inside? If you look at any magazine today, all they talk about is how to better your outside appearance. This constant ridicule has stemmed from the Bronze Age, and has continued throughout. Throughout history women have been using their good looks to achieve high social status, power, and a lavish life. The Bronze Age has paved the road for discrimination against the less attractive and privileged. In our everyday world today one can see the favoritism in the social, political, and professional world. In my research paper I will delve into the subject of beauty and how the Bronze Age has made our world today require and want

Spartan women, on the other hand, were more free than women in any other Greek city-state. While they were also not given the ability to directly participate in politics, they had much more freedom in terms of their ability to own property and conduct

In the article by Aristotle’s, Spartan Women, he shares that, “the legislator wanted to make the whole state hardy and temperate, and he has carried out his intention in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury.” With the reading and discussing it in class, Sparta Women were “used”, the Peloponnesian War Influenced Aristotle article because this was the time when women were doing the most work and he saw this a wrong. Spartan Women were taking for granted, these women jumped in and covered for their men and played a major role.

The freedom and greater respect for Spartan women began at birth with the fact that there were more girls than boys, because they were not victims of the state program of infanticide as was practiced in Athens. There were laws setup that required female infants and children to be given the same care and food as their brothers in contrast to other Greek cities where girls were frequently given less and lower quality food. The reason for this was because it was thought that if the girls had more food then their bodies would be better prepared for producing a healthy child for the Spartan society.

In the ancient Greek world, Spartan women had the most rights and power of all the women during this time. These women were allowed education, becoming a wife was important, they were also depended on to produce strong and healthy offspring, and they were independent. Spartan women were superior compared to any other women of ancient Greece. Women played a huge role in society. To begin, young girls in Sparta had the freedom to mature on their own while growing up.

In the classical Greek polis man pronouncedly dominated. Man – superior and overbearing. Women didn’t have a voice in the society and has always dependent on man. Independent woman was not heard of in ancient times. Woman was a lower creature and this position is clearly formulated by Aristotle. But the women of ancient Sparta were a special kind of women. She was a woman that produced worriers whose legend remains until this day.

Based on Robert W. Strayer’s Ways of The World, Sparta offered women the best life. Whether about her personal finances, physical fitness, or domestic role, Spartan women enjoyed more liberty than their contemporaries did in China, India, Athens, and Rome. Whereas domestic Chinese women served as the kinder, gentler Yang to the husband’s strong, rigid Yin, Spartan women exercised “more authority in the household and because Chinese women were expected to behave “womanly" and with “implicit obedience,” China is precluded from being the best civilization for a woman to live in (pp. 234, 236, 245-6, 239). Another contrast to Sparta is India, where bikkhunis wrote stories of escape and freedom from patriarchy (pp. 247-8, 218). Although Indian women were “at the core of social life,” Spartan women did not have public roles (pp. 217, 240).

If you built a time machine and I had to choose between being sent to Sparta and the Salian Franks, it would be a tough call, but in the end I would have to choose to live in Sparta. There are many reasons behind that choice, but most of them tie back to me being a female and how each society treated their women, both Spartan and Salian cultures treated women better then Roman society that being said Spartan culture, according to Xenophon women were treated very similarly to the men in many ways.

Sparta was an intense polis that used slavery as a way to ease their everyday lives so the citizens could focus on what was important, military strength and fitness. The men devoted their lives from the age of six to Sparta above all. Women were allowed a unique experience of freedom that no other city-states allowed. Children faced hardship from their very first day of life, subjected to trials and if found inferior were subjected to infanticide. Spartiates held their state above all else which resulted in a superior militaristic society, stronger, and healthier citizens than any other polis in Greece.

Even being from the same time frame in history, the Roman women from Sparta and the Greek women from Athens were completely different. Their ideas, habits, and daily activities were majorly impacted by the community they lived in. Some of the main differences between the lifestyles of these women include the rights they were given under the government, the daily and professional attire of the women, and the marital and divorce rituals of each of the women. Though they had many different things about them, they also had some similarities that connected them together. Both the Athens and Sparta have two completely different statuses for their women in the society, in many different aspects as well.

Despite Athenian and Spartans being associates of the same influential nation, these two states or ‘Peloi’ and denominations of people in Ancient Greece in (400BC) were substantially different. The women in their own distinct societies endured several problematic issues and experienced inequity, demoralisation and condemnation. The notion of women and their purpose was typically conjectured by men in society, specifically Aristotle who claimed that women brought ‘disorder, were evil, were utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy’ . However despite misogynistic, biased and loathsome perspectives of women, both Athenian and Spartan women have all played exceedingly significant roles and contributed substantially to the prosperity of Ancient Greek society in their own inimitable ways.

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

On the contrary to life of women in Athens, the women of Sparta had considerable freedom. They were allowed to leave their houses when ever they pleased. They were required per the state policy to have education both from physical and educational perspective. The reason for physical education was because they could make and nourish babies that would be healthy for the children to be capable of being good warriors and if the baby was not fit as they would be judged by the elders, as mentioned before they would be left to die outside the city.

First, besides their strong military, Sparta was known for providing women with a decent amount of rights. In these rights, education was provided. According to Plutarch(Document E), women had to be educated and trained in order to produce healthy offspring. Women were trained in many things such as “wrestling running, and throwing the quoit*, and casting the dart”(Document E). These activities were meant to strengthen women in order to produce “healthy and vigorous offspring”(Document E). By producing healthy and vigorous offspring, Sparta had a better chance at winning battles. Therefore, women being provided with an education had highly contributed to the strengths of a Spartan education.

There was such thing as Spartan Women and they were very strong, both psychically and mentally. They were educated to know about the arts, music, war, philosophy and more. They had rights that no other women in Greek had or could afford. They were the Alpha women of the Ancient Greek world. They by far had the most power. They also had the most equality afforded to them by Sparta. Spartan women had much more free than Greek women had but they still had a regiment to confirm too just as the men did. Sparta had to map for each citizen and they were expected to follow it for the good of the state and so that they could succeed. After they passed their psychical test they at the age of 18 they were then granted full citizenship for Sparta. Which meant they could now be eligible to get married and they were afforded many rights that other Greek women did not have.