What were the duties and expectations of women in, Mycenaean Greece, Classical Athens, and Ancient Rome?

Which one would prefer to be and why?

The duties and expectations of women in these societies were similar in certain aspects, however vastly different in others. This essay will highlight the duties and expectations that were both similar throughout the stated societies and different. I will also show how with my different sources varied in information or perhaps were quite repetitive in their information given, also showing what aspects were easier to investigate into due to evidence and which were not. I will also write which society I would most enjoy being in and why based on my information. Mycenaean womens general duties whether rich or poor were to wash the male families etc clothing and generally seeing that all the male families or visitors needs were seen to by either them or their maids. If of course they themselves were of low class i.e.maids slaves etc they would see to that they and their fellow maids met the male superiors needs. I refer to the males as superior as they were considered as that. Men seemed to have had a more active involvement in general society whatever class men were always above, women of whom in their own right were all in one lower class then the men, the females- no matter what their role or aristocracy in society men would always be higher. Men took political roles and had political opinions that women could not voice, women of high class would not be expected to work, although would oversee maids and look after and raise their expected many children. Another reason women of a higher class would stay inside would be for fashionable status reasons, skin was expected to be kept fair and therefore as well as modest clothes being fashionable, and most likely part of their expectations, modest clothes that covered a considerable amount of skin would protect skin from becoming tanned and ugly.Women also did not have much or any freedom lower class women left the house to work, in contrast upper class women stayed in the house to do their expected work (raising children, overseeing maids duties and fulfilling her own) most women were sequestered away and given little or no education.

Women were expected to have children, not only did, of course, the males pressure them into doing so, also society did. `It would be highly disappointing and in some cases enough to lead a male, as only he cold, to divorce his wife, to not have sons. This was because son would have carried down the family name aswell as having a political voice.

Furthermore women did not educate their children in Mycenaean societies a male maid would educate the boys,girls would not be educated by this maid, hence women could not teach their children, as they themselves were not educated enough to do so. Even though Mycenaean women were expected to have many children and sons they could not choose whom to marry and consequently have these children with. They would be demeaned to their fathers or brothers, male relatives in their blood family, until they were married. This would be an arranged marriage at a young age due to the life expectancy at that time being around thirty years of age due to lack healthcare and facilities we have today. This marriage would be arranged by the girlsand soon to be considered womens, father. After the wedding she would be demined to her husband. Women throughout their whole lives would always have a dominant male to obey. It was a similar story in Classical Athens; men were superior as well as the fact that a brides father would arrange the marriage. Marriage was still the most ritualistic and important aspect of life.Sons were still expected and were a disappointment if not received. Although men were still dominant, women had more freedom in Classical Athens. There were festivals that they could go to around 260 a year, these would normally be higher class women, however the highest class the Hetaerae would not attend these as there would be few of them and they were most likely busy entertaining men. Outside of these festivals, however, women were subject to a life of subservience. They were not supposed to leave the house they were expected to raise healthy and many children. Women had many children as the life expectancy was low and children would often die before the age of six meaning that the more children you had the more likely you would have children at an older age.

In this society a new class, well relatively new class, of women had been educated. These were the Hetaerae, these were women who were educated in; holding the conversations, stimulating men, music, art, and many more. These were the very few of the women who were educated. Although they did not have political rights, men listened to them, this may have helped them get their political views voiced. Hetaerae did have more rights than Athenian citizenship and slave woman, as they were aloud in the agora, and other out of the home structures which normal women would not be, as they would be expected to stay inside.Hetaerae were the Athenian form of prostitutes in their own right. Though the Hetaerae were educated most women were not in Classical Athens. The lower class women were not educated as their jobs required more domestic skills i.e. domestic cleaning, maids, they helped raise children. These were the slave women. There were also male slaves they either worked in trade arts and some educated others sons. Male slaves would normally educate the Athenian citizen ship women and mens children, well only the sons, similarly toMycenaean. In the roman societies education policies were slightly different to Athenian and Mycenaean, mothers actually educated their sons and consequently educated their daughters a little in order to do the same. Though men and boys were educated more women were provided with the means to educate them. This was not only a great step for womens rights but also a greatstep for woman political views to be voiced. Women who were not the hetaerae could now voice their views through men well boys to, though it is slightly manipulative women could now biasly teach their sons of their political views and impose them on them, this would then lead them when they were older to have roughly the same views as the women and therefore act on their behalf. In contrast to the other societies education and political rights got better in comparison marriage rights did not. Women were now expected to be married at a very young age normally by the age of twelve, sometimes younger. Life expectancy was still at a very low age compared to today in fact lower than it had been before, this was probably to do with the girls having to many children at nowadays irrational age, many most likely had miscarriages and some died during childbirth. This was a lot to do with the fact that girls at a young age were having many children without reprieve. Slave girls were quite fortunate, as they were not pressured to have as many children due to

the fact that they did not have the means to support them. There was still pressure to have sons, however the women would have wanted sons in order to educate them inpolitics so that possibly their opinions would be voiced. Though the politic rights differed from other societies as women had the advantage of educating their sons the rest of the rights were very similar, they were still not permitted to voice their political views, vote, however they were considered citizens and as a result had ore freedom than women from the other societies. I would have most enjoyed living in a Roman society as women could take advantage of raising and educating their sons and therefore having their political view possibly heard. This probably would have eventually made womens rights in that society better and I would have wanted to be part of that.

Bibliography

http://www.hist.uib.no/antikk/antres/Womens%20life.htm By Jordan Christian Meyer Date unknown

http://www.fjkluth.com/hetaera.html Date unknown Author unknown

Cost of the information I found was either general i.e. in several of the books or based on upper class women. This may have been because there was more evidence on upper class women, however when looking at images and analysing them their was a lot more information on women of lower class and showing how hard they worked, normally there was an upper class or a superior looking figure overseeing the lower class working. I feel my sources were very general and a lot of my work involved my class notes more than anything I think our class notes will always be the most reliable of my sources as we now where it

has come from however we do not know the people and whether or not the information on the internet is accurate. I would have liked to use more books however their information seemed to be very general, and it did not specify which society it was referring to.