Women’s Role in Ancient Times
HIS 103 World Civilizations I

Women's Role in Ancient times
A woman in today’s society is somewhat equal to a man’s but the treatment of women in ancient times were strict and women had no rights as compared to men. During the Ancient times, there was the misconception of women and the different roles they played. They were to stay at home and took care of their households and such other womanly duties that were deemed appropriate for their gender during those periods. Also, it was very important for a woman to know the laws and requirements of their roles and how those roles were perceived in a society. In many countries, the women had similarities, and a few differences. Although time has progressed and there are some roles that are no longer in existence, the women of today and ancient times still have things in common. For example, women still have the role of caring for their children, instilling family values, and commitment to sacred vowels of matrimony. Throughout history, there are many cultures that shared the same common beliefs about the role of women. Women in the countries like China, Egypt, Rome, and the Mesopotamian society are a few places that women’s cultures are shared with common similarities but there are some with different aspects. Women were considered weaker than men and were unable to perform work that requires muscular or intellectual development. Because of this, women were restrained to accomplishing light workloads consisting of domestic chores while the men handled harder labor like plowing farmlands and such things that are considered to be handled by men. This gave a formulated opinion that spread into common law with many cultures but there were no consideration for the emotional strain and the fact that the workloads for the women were just as hard and in some cases harder because of cases that involved child birth, caring for children, and doing tasks like keeping up with financial stability within the household. In ancient times, traditions were closely followed (Thompson, 2010). For example, the daughter would be taught at an early and would follow in her mother’s footsteps. Cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children were something that was expected when a girl grew up into an adult woman. This was because of the nature for women to be married and bear children and this was common practice due to the fact that they were groomed at early ages and were expected to carry on with the roles that were best suited for them. Every society has different views of a woman’s role and it has often lead to many assumptions and misunderstanding from another’s point of view. A woman’s role consisted of many responsibilities but there are certain responsibilities that have made an impact on ancient times. Jobs for women were limited to responsibilities within the household and in other cultures their responsibilities would expand to farm lands in the absence of men. Marriage was considered the normal state in the ancient world and it was common practice for a woman to be married early at the ages of 13 and many marriages were arranged with consent from the fathers or the eldest brother.
In Mesopotamian society (5000–1000 BCE), the women’s role was much less because they were seen as inferior and unequal to men and they had no foothold within Mesopotamian society. Mesopotamian laws were more accustomed to men than women. Men were the head of the household and had the final decision of all family matters as prescribed by Mesopotamia laws. Men also had the power to sell their wives and children into slavery to in order to relinquish debt. If wives were assumed for committing adulterous acts, the laws allowed death by drowning as punishment but men permitted to engage in sexual relations with concubines, slaves, or prostitutes without being punished for infidelity. “During the second millennium B.C.E., however Mesopotamian men progressively tightened their control over the social and sexual behavior of women. To protect family fortunes and guarantee the legitimacy of heirs, Mesopotamians insisted on the virginity of brides at marriage, and they forbade casual socializing between married women and men outside their family. By 1500 B.C.E. and probably even earlier, married women in Mesopotamian cities had begun to wear veils when they ventured beyond their own households in order to discourage the attention of men from other families. This concern to control women’s social and sexual behavior spread throughout much of southwest Asia and the Mediterranean basin, where it reinforced patriarchal society structures” (Bentley, 2008). However, in the early Neolithic period, women were free to go out to the marketplaces, buy and sell goods, attend to legal matters for their absent men, own their own property, borrow and lend, and engage in business for themselves (Mahdavi, 2012). Women gathered organic food sources like nuts and fruit while the men were to hunt for food. This gave women a higher social standing and gives them more authority because of their contribution of gathering the majority of the food supply. Farming became a prominent way of life because families were settling in one area to farm for their food. During the Neolithic period, women lost a lot a freedom and power because the men did the most work due to settlement and agriculture. In most cases, women did have respective roles among men. Women with high status would be given administrative authority because they were able to read and write and in some cities, women goddesses were worshipped. Even though those cases may have been milestone for women equality, these do not cancel out the negative things. For example, in the later period of Mesopotamian history, women were confined to their domicile for child rearing, they were not allowed to divorce their husbands, and the code of Hammurabi indirectly degraded women.
In ancient Egypt, women were treated better than any other major society of the ancient world because they had as much independence and civil rights as the men did. Egyptian women were very fortunate for a few reasons and one of them is that an Egyptian woman could become a Pharaoh under very special circumstances such as Cleopatra. This gave an equally important status because a woman was entitled to the crown that was passed through the royal women and not the men. This being that they were just as equal to men. They initiate deals involving currency, sign contracts, free slaves, and initiate law suits and divorces. This made Egyptian women very powerful in matters concluded throughout legal decisions. The Egyptian women were very powerful in the sense where they could make legal decisions and they had a great deal of rights in the things they were allowed to do. The women were sometimes looked at as being equal to the men and they were also equally responsible for anything that accompanied these rights. Love and emotional support were considered important parts of marriage and the husbands of Egyptian women were required to make their wives happy but many Egyptians of both sexes had more than one partner. “Generally, women were seen as more passionate than men and whether as dangerous femme’s fatales, or nurturing housewives and mothers, their role was to encourage and support the male.”(Graves-Brown, 2010). The most common title of the house for non-royal women was known as the mistress of the house. As in some of the other societies the men were known as being the head of the household. Egyptian women were responsible for their nurturing of their children, but they could also work, gain ownership of a business, and inherit property (Jones, 2010). Females were allowed to be religious leaders in the priesthood, though they were not equal to men. Women had been trained in medicine and other highly skilled jobs. In ancient Egypt, women were allowed to buy goods including exotic jewelry and some women became rich when they were in business for themselves. In Roman society, ties within the family were very strong. Women’s money, religious practices, and activities were in control by men in the day. The Roman men had very high morals for home, marriage, and family values and this was a deciding factor on how women were treated in Roman society. The head of the family was the parerfamilias, the father or oldest dominant male of the family. He held absolute power over his family as long as he lived. He could legally kill his wife for adultery or divorce her for any reason. Family decisions were also made by the leading adult males of the family. Male dominance in family life can be seen in more ways than just common law. In Roman houses, it was very common for the father's office, the tablinum, to be located in the center of the house. Women had a lot of challenges when Augustus came to power and established the empire. With the changing of ruler’s came the changing of society and this made women’s lives stressful. Under Roman law, women went from the authority of their fathers to the authority of their husbands, and even a woman of wealth needed a male counterpart to supervise her finances. Although it may seem like Roman women had no authority in family matters, she did run the household and it became common practice for the wife to have a position of authority and respect. Roman wives were expected to have virtues of modesty, fidelity, and dedication to the family. She supervised the slave workers, planned meals, and devoted an insurmountable deal of attention to her children. Later in the Roman timeline, Christianity affected the treatment of women and Roman Christians were eager to accept women into their faith. During the Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BCE) in China, elite families were organized as patrilineal, kin exogamous groups when they were primary and secondary women and wives or concubines (Maynes, 2001). The men could have more than one wife at the same time. The Elite women went into the marriage as primary wives, or concubines (Vivante, 2002). If the women wanted a divorce, it was also permissible for the spouse or both spouses and nonkinsmen to dismiss her from the marriage. While the household was under the authority of the man, in the similar families, the married women might have needed more autonomy. In Qin time it was against the law for a man to beat a woman, because it allowed the woman to be somewhat protected. They also married at a very young age which ranged from thirteen to seventeen years of age. The women had to also comfort, bath, feed and respect the family members of the man, because it was a “Domestic Regulation” (Vivante, 2002). Women of Ancient China were forced at a young age to endure a practice called “footbinding” to make their feet small. “Footbinding thus became an efficient way to keep women within their role within the society. It offered a “means of spreading Chinese culture and teaching the separation of men and women” (Ping, 2000).
While traditional sayings based on interpretations of an ancient society's beliefs shaped women's historic participation and status in their societies, women are still often looked upon as an inferior class in certain societies today. They often do not enjoy the same benefits, political influence, or power as their male counterparts. The conception of women were misunderstood, and while there were similarities and differences in the societies, the majority of the societies had a lot of the same similarities where women were to be homemakers, bear children, and vowels of matrimony. In other societies, women had little or no rights which included politics and religion. Women did not have much freedom, and they were only used as a tool of obedience to be seen and did not have the right for verbal opinions. However, in the Western nations, women enjoy increasing respect, equality and affluence. All in all, women have acquired an equal role within today’s society through a long struggle for independence and equality.

References
Bentley, J., Ziegler, H., & Streets-Salter, H. (2008). Traditions & encounters: A brief global history (3 ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education.
Graves-Brown, C. (2010). Dancing for Hathor : Women in Ancient Egypt [Ebrary Reader]. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10427226&p00=dancing%20hathor%3A%20women%20ancient%20egypt.
Jones, A. (2010). Role Of Women In Ancient Egypt. Retrieved from http://historicmysteries.com/role-of-women-in-ancient-egypt
Mahdavi, F. (2012). World history: The human experience to 1500. San Diego, CA; Bridgeport Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUHIS103.12.1
Maynes, M., & Waltner, A. (2001). WOMEN’S LIFE-CYCLE TRANSITIONS IN A WORLD-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Comparing Marriage in China and Europe. Journal of World History 12 (4), 11-21. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Online Library
Ping, W. (2000). Aching for Beauty: Foot binding in China. University of Minnesota Press. [Ebrary Reader]. doi:10159664
Thompson, J. (2010). WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. Retrieved from http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/
Vivante, B. (2002). Women’s roles in ancient civilizations: A reference guide. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/229703258?accountid=32521