Classical Athens Vs. Women In America

Women in Classical Athens vs. Women in America
Women in classical Athens, according to many of the accounts of women's position in the Greek city-state, lived a life of domestic slavery. Men controlled politics and societal influence in the public setting, so the lives of women were no different from foreigners or slaves who also had no civil rights. The lives of women in classical Athens greatly contrasts the lives of women in America today; however both share similar family obligations. While the obvious differences are that women didn't hold political office, didn't own property, and women didn't work outside the home, similar to women in America today, women were the primary caretakers of the home.
In classical Athens, women did not hold political office. In fact, women were not even allowed to vote. This is dramatically different from women's roles in politics in America today. Women in America haven't always had the right to vote. For years women fought for the right to be considered equal. Even though we still struggle with the equality of women holding political office (we have yet to see a female president in this country), numerous women do hold political positions and are allowed to vote. Women attend and also participate
in political events and debates; and furthermore, women today are sent as ambassadors to other countries to represent the people of America.
As second class citizens, women in Athens were greatly limited in their freedom.
This limitation of freedom didn't stop with just politics; it extended to personal freedoms as well, limiting their freedom to choose a husband, own property, and even keep the children they bore. From childhood, girls were raised to understand their role as "breeders" of new citizens for the continuation of Athenian society. Since Athenian society was exclusive, not allowing foreigners to have the same privileges as Athenians, the role of women to produce good heirs was an important one. Therefore women were closely guarded during their reproductive years. They were kept isolated in a special part of the home while her father chose a husband for
her.
At puberty, young girls were married to men as old as thirty years of age and older. Marriage did not require that the bride consent to the joining, she was simply passed from the charge or guardianship of her father to that of her new husband, which created from the beginning, an unequal balance of power, continuing the cycle of oppression.
Women were considered the property of their fathers and then their husbands; therefore they could not own property of their own, even though they brought with them a dowry that was not available to the husband to spend. In the event of a father's death, the inheritance (property) was distributed among his sons. His daughters received nothing. Even if there were no sons to pass the inheritance on to, only a daughter, she was still not entitled to the property. What this meant was that she held the property with her, but it was not legally hers. What is more, she had no choice but to marry the male relative who was "entitled" to her, usually an uncle, to keep the family wealth in the family.
Unlike America, where more than fifty percent of women work outside the home, a respectable woman working outside the home was unheard of in classical Athens. That's not to say that Greek women never left the home. While it was rare to see Athenian women in public, they were allow to attend public speeches and visit certain sanctuaries. Women of differing ages also participated in specific religious festivals, some of which included men.
At the same time that not holding political office or working outside the home made Athenian women different from American women, the fact that they were the main caretakers of the home made them similar to American women. It was the woman's responsibility to fetch the water from the local fountain house, which presented women with the opportunity to socialize with other women, and also to visit the tombs of family members. In addition to childbearing, weaving fabric and managing the household were key responsibilities for Athenian women.
American women are fortunate enough to have indoor plumbing, which makes fetching the water unnecessary; however the majority of the responsibility of managing the home still belongs to the woman. Many women in America today, in addition to working a full time job outside the home also manage the family finances, do all the cooking and clean and still find time to attend to the needs of the children.
With everything we know about ancient Greece, the lives of women in classical Athens, we know, could not have been very fun. Men controlled the politics, societal influence, the ownership of property and they "owned" their wives and children. The lives of women in classical Athens greatly contrasts the lives of women in America today. Women didn't hold political office, didn't own property, and women didn't work outside the home. Women were, however, the main caretakers of the home. Albeit there are noticeable differences in the women of ancient Greece and the women of America, there are also some similarities and those similarities are what make women today sympathetic to the plight of women who came before us.