The part women played in the success of the harsh life of the ancient Mesopotamian family is easily defined in the historical record by the implements of daily life that they left behind like kitchen utensils, bowls, and furnishings. While men were primarily concerned with matters of government and commerce, women were responsible for the basic survival of the species in domestic matters and raising children. Ancient women were free to participate in commerce, attend legal matters, and some even owned property. However, education was limited only to high status women such as priestesses and royal family members. The first law code of Western history, the Code of Hammurabi, outlines

Roman women faced the same standard husbandly dislike as their Athenian comrades. Roman women were usually married young, as early as 12, to an older man. Marriages were always prearranged and usually dictated by financial or political interests. There were two types of marriage: manus, a marriage in which the wife was legally dependent on her husband who had legal control of her property, and “free marriage” in which the woman remained part of her own family. The principles of Roman legal theory held that women were weak and light-minded and so mandated all women under the custody of males. However, Vestal Virgins, a cultic role reserved for only a few, were exempt from such laws. In the late republic, legislation was passed by Augustus providing a way for women to free themselves from supervision by males. The “right of three or four children” enabled a freeborn woman who bore three children or a freedwoman who bore four to become exempt from guardianship. This provision impaired the judicial doctrine of the weakness of women, thereby empowering them to take control of their own lives.

The chaos of the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance during the 14th century, attitudes towards women were finally beginning to change. Women had a settle to score and many who had the privilege of an education set out immediately to do so. Christine de Pizan may have been the first feminist. Her book, “The Book of the City of Ladies,” was a Renaissance “how to guide” for all women that signaled a new unprecedented freedom for the female gender in an age of chivalry. During the Renaissance, the number of universities more than tripled across Europe, and the opportunities for vernacular secular education multiplied as well. The centuries between 1300 and 1500 were something of golden age for women.

Grecian women had far less freedom that the Egyptian women. The women of Greece were hardly allowed to leave their homes and when they did they were required by law to cover their heads and had to be accompanied by a male chaperone. Grecian women were confined to their apartments and not allowed to leave without permission. The Greek historian, Herodotus, recorded his biased views of the difference between the freedom of the Egyptian females during a visit he made to Egypt around 450 B.C.

Prostitution was legal during the time of Solon (594 B.C.) in Greece. The upper class of prostitutes, the hetaerae, “were successful women in a man’s world, sometimes very successful.” These woman had complete social freedom to walk the streets unescorted, attend market, see plays, and most were very well educated. So, what made them so different from the Grecian wives? Only the misogynist minds of their husbands, “To the Greeks, a woman (regardless of age or marital

Some topics in this essay:
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