Women in Ancient Greece

Women in Ancient Greece

Learn about women during the civilization of Ancient Greece, including their jobs, poor and wealthy women, legal rights, marriage, slaves, women in Sparta, and interesting facts

Women in Ancient Greece

Overview

In ancient Greece, women were viewed as inferior to men. Girls had to submit to their father and follow his instructions prior to marriage. Wives were subservient to their husbands after marriage. Men denigrated women and thought they were no more intelligent than toddlers.

Staying at Home

It was expected of women to take care of the home and remain at home. Men in the city-state of Athens occasionally forbade their wives from leaving the house. In a sense, they were captives in their own houses. In addition to managing the domestic slaves, women also occupied a distinct section of the home.

Wealthy Women

Married to wealthy men, women were frequently shut up in their houses. Their duties included taking care of the family and bearing the husband’s sons. They ate their meals apart from the guys and lived in a different part of the house. Their servants assisted with taking care of the house, rearing the kids, and doing errands. The majority of women, including affluent ones, assisted in weaving cloth for the family’s clothes.

Poor Women

Because they could not afford to own as many slaves, poor women frequently enjoyed greater freedom than affluent women. Poor women had to leave the house to buy, perform errands, and get water because they didn’t have many slaves. They occasionally worked in the neighborhood stores or as servants for the wealthy.

Did women have legal rights?

In some Greek city-states, such as Athens, women had few legal rights. In Athens, women generally couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, and weren’t allowed to participate in the government. In other city-states, women had a few more rights but still had fewer rights than men.

Marriage

Women usually had no say in who they married. They were “given” in marriage by their father to another man. Sometimes very young girls were married to older men.

Slave Women

Slave women were the lowest class in ancient Greece. They were not only slaves, but they were also women.

Women in Sparta

Life was different for the women of the city-state of Sparta. In Sparta, women were respected as the “mother’s of warriors.” Although they were not considered equal with men, they had more rights and freedom than the women of Athens. They were educated, played sports, were allowed to walk around the city freely, and were also able to own property.

Facts About Women in Ancient Greece

• When a woman gave birth to a daughter, she would look away from her husband in shame. Sometimes unwanted baby girls were thrown out with the trash.
• One type of Greek philosophy called Stoicism argued that men and women should be treated as equals.
• In Athens, women could only buy and sell things that were less than a certain value called a “medimnos” of grain. This allowed them to buy small things at the market but not participate in major business deals.
• The main public position a woman could have was as a priestess to one of the Greek goddesses.
• Women were not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. Married women were strictly forbidden to attend and could be put to death if they were caught at the games.

Women in Ancient Greece

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