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The Role of Women in Ancient Egypt

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Submitted By zephgeyer
Words 2126
Pages 9
Zeph Geyer
Ancient World History
Rough Draft
11/8/2014

In most civilizations in the ancient world, there were vast differences between the lives of men and women. For example, women could not serve in the Roman Senate, own property in ancient Greece, or ask for divorce. All of these rules existed while men had the ability to do all of these things. The life of a woman in the ancient world was in no way equal to men in most societies. The Egyptians believed that joy and happiness were of the utmost importance in life, and regarded the home and family as a major source of happiness. This meant that the Egyptian’s thought better of women who did not work, and took care of the home and family. All other ancient civilizations had one thing in common. Mesopotamia, Rome, Greece, and Israel were all surrounded by other sets of people. This meant that these other civilizations had to be warlike societies, and this meant women would have less of a role because men believed women could not fight as well in battle. Egypt developed under unique circumstances. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea separated the Egyptians from everyone else in the ancient world. In other words, the Egyptians did not have a warlike society because training like that was unnecessary. Since there was no need for a warlike society in Egypt, women had a more established role in society. Women’s rights in Egypt were more equal to men than other civilizations because of the unique circumstances under which Egypt developed, the non-warlike society, and the predictable overflow of the Nile River. Egypt developing independently from all other civilizations was important to women’s rights because Egypt could not be affected by other nations. For the ancient civilizations in the Middle East, their cultures and social tendencies were similar because they developed closely together. For example,

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