Spartan Women Research Paper

Sparta and Athens were two of the best-known and most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. Sparta was known for its strong military and seemingly insensitive values, while Athens was famous for its democratic government and advanced learning. Sparta valued power and military strength, while Athens was home of the more scholarly, philosophic intellectuals. Though it may seem like Athens was the more advanced of the two, Sparta was ahead in one important aspect: its treatment of women. Spartan women had many rights. They were respected and treated very well. Athenian women, on the other hand, were barely better than slaves. They had little to no rights and received minimum respect, if any. Spartan women led much better lives than their Athenian

However, they had many more freedoms in the domestic sphere, as well. Spartan women, unlike their Athenian sisters, were allowed and even encouraged to be seen in public. They participated in sporting events alongside their male counterparts, often in the nude. Unlike in most of Greece, women in Sparta did not marry until they were about eighteen (Hibbison 2), and they often married men who were roughly the same age, usually in their early 20s.The idea was that women who married when they were sexually mature would be able to bear healthier and stronger children. In the event of her husband’s death or a divorce (which a woman could institute), a woman was free to remain single and had no obligation to remarry. It is theorized that Spartan women even had a say in who they married, which would have put them far ahead of their time; however, it is not known for certain if this is true. This theory is mostly based on the fact that Spartan women had so much say in the other aspects of their married lives. Another interesting aspect of Spartan domestic life was the “lending” of wives. Paul Cartledge writes, “Husband[s] might actually ‘lend’ [their wives] to another man for the specific purpose of procreating legitimate offspring—for that other man’s household and lineage. As for the wives in these cases, they are said to have welcomed such an arrangement...since it gave them the chance to manage more than one household” (Cartledge 169). Women were given the chance to become part of another family through this process. Because most marriages in Sparta did not involve any type of emotional or romantic attachment, this was not considered immoral, and women would happily bear children for several men, as it gave her more power and status. It is important to note that Spartan women likely did have a say in this, however, because in most other societies, they would not have. Spartan women had many rights in the domestic