Role Of Women In Ancient Civilization

Women’s Role and Status in Ancient Civilizations
Throughout history, women have been subject to a multitude of treatments and statuses through the hands of their male counterparts. In Ancient Egypt, women enjoyed a clear majority of the same privileges as the men. In other civilizations, such as classical age Greece, women enjoyed very few social and political privileges compared to previous civilizations. The variation of the influence and status of women can partly be attributed to the cultural attitude towards familial relationships, general philosophy, and politics of that period.
In Mycenean Greece, women were regarded as courageous and wise, often being consulted in political and military matters. Greek myths suggest that occasionally women in Mycenean Greece could even rule kingdoms. Minoan Crete is particularly praised as being a feminine paradise world. However, aristocratic ideals eventually gave way to democratic ideals and the role of women in Greece was drastically altered.
The remarks of Pericles urging women to bear more children for the war effort, show no more weakness than is ‘natural to their sex,’ and attract no attention after the first war between Athens and Sparta reflects a great deal on the attitudes held toward women in classical Greece. Social attitudes towards women who did not confine her activities to normal marriage practices, seclusion and domestic work only, limited women’s life choices. Briditte Lion and Cecile Michel said, “ this very traditional representation of men, at work, and women, at home, is still taken for granted by most scholars. ” The exceptions to the seclusion of women were priestesses and singers of poetry. The most famous female singer of poems was