Gender Roles: Athens Vs. Sparta Essay Two city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, seemly should be the similar as they belong to the same region, but due geography, the city-states of Greece have vast similarities and differences across the entire civilization. Greece was stationed upon a mountainous peninsula that just out in the Mediterranean Sea and the land was useless, as it lacked any natural resources, so culture grew along the sea and climate. With the ocean they had access to travel and trade fro any resources and the climate allowed for a new type of living, outdoor living. With outdoor living came a new government, (limited) democracy, first seen in Athens around 500 BC and it created equilibrium between the rich and …show more content…
In Athens, the women had very little freedom and were expected to remain out of sight and silently raise their chidlren. As they were not considered to be citizens, they had no politcal opinion and were rarely educated. If they were luck enough to be educated, they would have been from a wealthy family; while most other girls learned from the other female household members on how to be a good housewife. Athenian women were raised and treated this way because male Athenian children needed to be raised right by their mothers in order to vote well in the government and, at the time, women were believed to have been less intelligent than males. But differing from the Athenians, Spartan women were tough and had more freedom. Women in Sparta even controlled the family and estate when the men were gone and showed their children tough love by saying, “Come back with your shield or on it,” meaning be victorious or die trying. Women may have even received physical training, not to go to war but so that they could defend themselves and produce strong babies that could fight and defend Sparta. Yet, like the Spartan and Athenian men, the women had similarities as well. Athenian and Spartan were both expected to have children for the state, as it was their job in society. Although Spartan women had more freedom, both were treated as second class citizens, Athenian women were not even considered citizens, and were unequal to
The governments of these two city-states were not alike in many ways. “It is true that our government is called a democracy, because its administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of the many,” (Document 3). Athens’ government was what we would consider today a direct democracy. This means that their government was run by the people, or in other words “the many”, rather than a couple government officials, or “the few”. Although Athens was running their city as a government by the people, Sparta had a different form of government. “it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy,
Spartan women were allowed to own and control land. “Yet it does seem to be the case that Spartan daughters received as dowries one-half the amount of their parents’ property that their brothers received as inheritance.” (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 143. Print) Whereas Athenian women only received one-sixth the amount that their brothers inherited. Spartan women inherited three times as more than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were also allowed and even encouraged to be educated, whereas the education of Athenian girls was almost nonexistent. In Athens the majority of girls “… received merely a basic training in how to run the household, generally from their mothers. Girls may even have been discouraged from becoming literate in order to keep them “unspoiled.”( Garland, Robert. "The People." Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. 103. Print.) Whereas in Sparta the girls were educated at the state’s expense. “Specific lines of development were prescribed for Spartan girls as much as they were for boys. The educational system for girls was also organized according to age classes. (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 141. Print) Spartan women were also allowed more freedoms in the way that they dressed than their Athenian counterparts. “In earlier times Athenian women wore the peplos, a long heavy woolen garment which revealed little of the figure beneath. In the middle of the sixth century B.C., the peplos was replaced by a lighter and finer garment made of linen called
In her book, Spartan Women, Sarah B. Pomeroy explores the fundamentals of Spartan women’s society and the significance they contributed to the country as a whole. While surrounded by Greek antiquity, the women of Sparta differed vastly from their Greek counterparts. Not only were they of a higher significance than Greek women but were also an attribute in the education and upbringing of the children of Sparta which was the goal of their society. Sarah Pomeroy explores how Spartan women were not only considered almost as equals to men, but in some cases, even more important.
Spartan women were considered fundamentally more advanced than other women of Athens, due to the way that Spartan women were reared. Spartan women were treated equally to men, and given freedom like the men were. They were given the opportunity to train with men, and were even slightly more educated than their male cohorts. Spartan women were exceptionally more advanced than other women during this age due to these factors, and are a great example of strong women within past civilizations.
In Athens, women had no rights at all. The men would run the town, and women were left at home to keep the house clean and take care of children. If these ranks of society suddenly went away in these two Greek city-states, no one would know what to do. The citizens of Sparta would not know how to harvest fields or run a household because their whole lives were focused on either preparing them to fight in the military or actually going off to war. The Spartan military would probably also not be as strong because all men would not be required to fight.
James Thompson’s research on women in Sparta is not clear where he got the information. However, he seems to be the only one who does not compare Sparta directly to Athens until the very end, were he provides a chart on why women were more dominant than their Athenian sisters. His main focus of work was explaining what women could and could not do. In the beginning he briefly talks about Spartan boys before beginning to talk about the women. Throughout the article he talks about how having the responsibility of the house, properties and children must have been enormous without the husband there. He mentions some of the responsibilities and explained why marriages were the way they were. He talks about the women having a strong voice in their societies and benign influential in the decision making of the country despise the fact that they could not vote. He often makes reference of other people’s opinions such as saying “some have suggested…”. He talks about women owned a third of the land and could inherited land like the boys too. His work is intended for a general audience and one can argue that it could be aimed towards children.
In ancient Greece, there were clear differences regarding the manner in which men and women should behave. Males were expected to be the dominant sex, ruling over the land and people without any input from females. They were the sole breadwinners for the families and were to be given the utmost respect at all times. In contrast, women were to remain in the shadow of their husbands, not speak up or retaliate in any way, and complete household chores such as cleaning and caring for the children. In fact, they could not sleep in the same room as the men and were rarely allowed to leave the home. If they were to stray from these specific roles, they would face serious consequences and have even more of their little freedom taken away by the males.
Women in Sparta were more dominant in society than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were given a good education, they were taught how to read and write, and were good in arts and athletics. Spartan women were expected to be smart enough to control their property. Spartan women had different freedoms and advantages than other Greek women; they had to be physically, emotionally, and intellectually strong. Spartan women were notoriously known for their razor-sharp wit and outspoken natures. They were encouraged to develop their intellect, and owned more than third of the land almost two-fifths of the state. While husbands and sons were working in the military, women took charge of everything inside and outside of the household. Spartan women were in control of their sons until the totalitarian society took them over at the age of 7. Being under a totalitarian society, Sparta had a strong military and citizens did not have an easy lifestyle like the Athenians. A totalitarian society meant that the political system had full control of the state, and controlled all aspects of public and private life. Spartan men dedicated their lives to the forces, and other services to the state of Sparta. Leaving their wife to the family wealth, and owning all property. Athenian men were away discussing politics, and when they came home they expected obedience from their wives. Athenian men had to be in control at all times while in public, but no social control behind closed doors. Athenian women never inherited any property, and they were left available to male relatives. Material power led the women of Sparta and Athens to marry a relative for heritance money. Financial power for women in Athens, was unlawful no woman could be in charge of mon...
Athens and Sparta are both infamous Greek city states. Both could not be more different, yet similar in the way they governed their own city state. Another, main difference was the women’s rights and roles in the system. Athenian and Spartan women both were considered to be second to their male counterparts. Spartan women had more rights than Athenian women. Through, research realizing that the Spartan women were slightly greater role than Athenian women.
Unlike other Greek city states, women played an integral role in Spartan society as they were the backbone of the Spartan economic system of inheritance and marriage dowry and they were relied upon to fulfill their main responsibility of producing Spartan warrior sons. These principle economic systems affected wealth distribution among Spartan citizens especially among the Spartan elite class. Spartan women led a completely different life than women in most other ancient Greek city states, as they were depended upon to maintain Spartan social systems. In a society where the state is more involved in home life women had freedom of movement and they were permitted to communicate with men who were not their husbands. Women had domestic responsibilities including the maintenance of homes and farms when the men were on campaign, while the typical Greek female responsibilities such as weaving were delegated to slaves. Girls were raised much like Spartan boys as they were made to go through physical training insuring their success in fulfilling their most important role in society, child-bearing. The few primary sources on Sparta and Spartiate women, namely Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus and Xenophon were historians who lived after the prominence of ancient Sparta; therefore, the facts regarding the women’s influence in social, economic and political issues must be carefully interpreted and analysed with help from secondary sources.
Both Sparta and Athens were Greek city-states. Sparta was a strict military ruled city-state where the people established themselves as a military power early. However Athens was more of a political city-state that was more involved with their economical stature than their military forces. Still changes from the Persian wars would change the powers of the city-state and somewhat unite them.
Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Classical Greece. While Athens embraced democracy, Sparta was a dictatorial fierce warrior state. Sparta was a militaristic community, Athens was a freethinking, and commerce minded city-state. Modern societies have modeled their government organizational structure and military discipline practices from lessons learned of these ancient city-states. There is much is to be praised regarding Classical Greece for their courage, their progressive thinking and the birth of democracy. However, I think it is important to remember that in both cases, Athens and Sparta were able to sustain their lifestyle on the backs of countless slaves, non-citizens and women and that there is a darker and less romantic side to the past.
There isn’t enough literature from this time period from the lower and middle classes of society, and the view of women we have comes from writings of the upper class males. As much of an enigma that the women of Athens were, it is clear that “women were for the most part legal nonentities,” (O’Neal 117) that were denied any association and participation in the intellectual life of their city. The women were not involved in getting an education, and never learned to read or write. O’Neal writes, “The principal spokesmen of fifth century Athens, Pericles and Thucydides, disdained Athenian women.” (O’Neal 117) Based on their writing, and on surmountable evidence, it can be assumed that women had only two roles in Athens - a wife, or a mother. A girl was ideally married at 14 or 15 years of age, and there was necessity that the bride was a virgin, otherwise she was shamed and sold into
Women in the ancient world had few rights, they differed from country to country or, in the case of the women of Athens and Sparta, from city-state to the city-state. The women of the city-states of Athens and Sparta had profound differences in their roles in the political and the daily lives of their families and their cities. When it came to the difference in levels of power and the rights of women, Sparta was a leader in its time. At the same time, their rights as citizens were almost the same. While they did not take an active part in politics, they had opinions and ideas like women all over the world. Their thoughts, deeds, and opinions rarely recorded or if they were, the male historians or philosophers of the time recorded them. What were roles did the women in ancient Athens and Sparta? Were they citizens, did they have personal freedoms? On the other hand, did they in a time when the beginnings of democracy were happening were they less than a second-class citizen? The misogyny and patriarchal societies continued throughout the ancient and classical periods only beginning to change in the Hellenistic era.
Each had their own version of political councils that were give specific power and tasks that they were to oversee and uphold. Equally, both city-states defined citizens as being only males who were born from descendants of either Athenian or Spartan born parents. Although very similar in structure, Athens and Sparta had their political differences. The main difference being Sparta’s focus being on war and employing a two king system to oversee the army as well as policy at the same time. Today this could be similar to the president and vice-president dynamic. Athens’ structure was much more complex than that of Sparta which gave more freedom to the people; this was partly due to breaking down regions into 10 separate states that formed the larger entire state of Athens. Below are some of the similarities in there government