The Women of Sparta
Sparta was cut off from the rest of Greece by high mountains and wild country sides, there for Spartans developed their own ideas of society and government. A domineering society that focused upon its military strength, Sparta did not allow its citizens the lenient lifestyle of Athenians. The ideology of Sparta was oriented around the state. The individual lived (and died) for the state. Their lives were designed to serve the state from their beginning to the age of sixty.
Women's lives were similar in many parts of ancient Greece, but the Greeks themselves singled out the city state of Sparta as being greatly different. The women of Sparta were granted an equal stake in the success or failure of their state. With their fathers and husbands constantly away training or at war, the women of Sparta were responsible for all else in Spartan society.
Individual families headed by a husband were insignificant in Spartan society. Instead, the state laid down rules for everyone. Boys were sent away from home at around the age of seven to be trained as soldiers where they lived in army barracks until they were around 30 years old, even then, the men might have been absent for months, fighting in battles. This resulted in the Spartan women having to be very self dependent, they had to manage households all alone. Unlike other Greek women, Spartan women could own land and property and make all decisions on how it was to be run.
“‘When a woman from Attica asked ‘Why is it that you Spartans are the only women who can rule men?’ Gorgo replied, ‘Because we are the only ones who give birth to men.’” (Plutarch, Sayings of Spartan Women, 240.5 translated in Pomeroy, 2002, 60)
“‘The licence of the Lacedaemonian women defeats the intention of the Spartan constitution, and is adverse to good order of the State. For a husband and a wife, being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and, therefore, in those states
Women's lives were similar in many parts of ancient Greece, but the Greeks themselves singled out the city state of Sparta as being greatly different. The women of Sparta were granted an equal stake in the success or failure of their state. With their fathers and husbands constantly away training or at war, the women of Sparta were responsible for all else in Spartan society.
Individual families headed by a husband were insignificant in Spartan society. Instead, the state laid down rules for everyone. Boys were sent away from home at around the age of seven to be trained as soldiers where they lived in army barracks until they were around 30 years old, even then, the men might have been absent for months, fighting in battles. This resulted in the Spartan women having to be very self dependent, they had to manage households all alone. Unlike other Greek women, Spartan women could own land and property and make all decisions on how it was to be run.
“‘When a woman from Attica asked ‘Why is it that you Spartans are the only women who can rule men?’ Gorgo replied, ‘Because we are the only ones who give birth to men.’” (Plutarch, Sayings of Spartan Women, 240.5 translated in Pomeroy, 2002, 60)
“‘The licence of the Lacedaemonian women defeats the intention of the Spartan constitution, and is adverse to good order of the State. For a husband and a wife, being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and, therefore, in those states