Essay On The Role Of Women In Ancient Greece

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The Insignificance of Women in Ancient Greece
According to Aristotle a woman in the ancient Greek world should give “no heed to public affairs”. Her sole purpose was to attend to affairs in the home. Conversely, the male role was to participate in civic affairs, since only men were considered to be citizens (O’Pry, 3). As a consequence it was men who played significant roles in the development of Greek society, with women only functioning in the private realm. All major political, civil, philosophical, judicial, military, economic, medical, educational and artistic roles were carried out by men (Middleton).
In spite of this it could be argued that without women’s labor in the home men would not have been able to fulfil their roles in civic …show more content…

They had no voice in politics, they were treated like property and there was barely any occasions where they were involved with warfare.
Although the women of Ancient Greece were allowed small freedoms, they did not have any voice in the politics of the Greek city states. This was mainly due to their lack of rights and the male fear of female domination (Nardo, 28). Athenian women were not identified as citizens, hence their inability to have any sort of role in politics. Nardo writes “Only men were politai, with the rights to take part in meetings of Assembly… hold public office; sue someone in court or sit on a jury; and serve in the military.”
Spartan women were known for being more respected in Sparta than the surrounding city - states. They could own property, but this did not mean that they had any more significance in the Spartan political system than women from any other Greek city (O’Pry, 6). Athens and Sparta did not exactly agree on their political stand points, but one thing did seem to look similar, the lack of female voice into how the cities were run. O’Pry states “A Spartan woman’s role in politics was much like that of all other women in Greece. They could not take active part in …show more content…

This is seen in most Greek art where male heroes were often depicted in battle, whereas women are generally shown standing and watching (Macdonald, 7). One of the most important reasons for the rise of Ancient Greece was its military success and yet women had no access to the army at any level except for in very rare cases such as the defence of a city under siege (Sabin, 246). Hoplite warfare (one of ancient Greece’s most effective military advances) was always made up of men

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