Ancient Greek Gender Roles

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Gender roles in the ancient worlds are known for having the women as nothing but wives and childbearers. This leaves the men as the leaders, hunters, and other roles of importance. This was how gender roles in ancient Greece were set up, women on bottom with no power and men on top with all the the power. Though one play was ahead of it’s time. They play Lysistrata by Aristophanes took liberties with the woman’s gender role in that it use their normal role to hold the power over men where it normally was not. Men of ancient Greece had all the inside of their nation. They controlled the political, and all important decisions. They were the sole providers in a household, they were the head of the house, the decided who the married their daughters to, they decided what their wives would do and when …show more content…
The only seen “good” roles that women were to have was that of wife and mother. The “bad” roles were those of the rebel, adulteress, and the witch. They had no power in political matters such as wars, and important decisions. Also not taught to read or write, the only education given to them was that of domestic training as in caring for the house, cooking, and child care, “they were virtually imprisoned in their homes.”() So with their little power they had to watch the sons go off to war, their daughters be married off to create better ties in the community, and had to live at the mercy of their husbands. Though in the play of Lysistrata the gender roles of women seem to be enhanced so that the little power they do have is measured up over men in a different way. The power women have over men is the denial of sex. This would normally be cause for a woman to be punished in some way but in Lysistrata this is not the case. They use the denial of sex to control the men into doing what they normally wouldn’t do. They use this power to reach into the political world, and make a decision that changes things in their
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