Gupta Women Influence

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For centuries, women’s influence on her society has fluctuated. Factors in this variation stemmed from many aspects. Main factors include religion, politics, economics, and male oriented texts which determine social expectations, as well as the degree of her importance within these factors shaped the way in which women influenced her society. In the affluent societies of Classical Athens (500 BCE - 338 BCE) Gupta (320 CE - 500 CE) and Roman Republic(510 BCE - 500 CE) many of these factors came into play when comparing women’s influences. As it appears, patriarchy is at the core of all these variations of factors of women's influences. The most important aspect in these early societies was their religion, which played a heavy influence …show more content…
In contrast Gupta’s patriarchal society left little room for women in religion. Ironically, the Hindu goddess Kali embodied all attributes of a women that men found threatening in a women. Although like Christianity in Rome, Gupta experienced the rise of Buddhism which proved to be a popular alternative to the patriarchal Hindu religion. However Buddhism still supported conforming to familial roles due to womens important task of procreation. Unlike Hinduism, men and women were seen as spiritually equal which is what drew many women to Buddhism. Women were even allowed to join the sangha inclusive to monks and nuns. The sangha was also a way for women to disassociate from the traditional familial patterns and provided an alternative lifestyle. Within the sangha, there was an outlet for women to pursue new opportunities including furthering their education on religion. For this was a way in which a women gained some freedom within her patriarchal system. However different variations of Buddhism arose after Buddha's death. Some limited womens power and some extended it. For example, Vajrayana Buddhism elevated women's status by proclaiming that men and women could both reach enlightenment. For many women Buddhism gave an outlet for spiritual fulfillment not otherwise able to be obtained through …show more content…
Women were expected to be good wives who devoted their whole being to their husband by adhering to the ideal feminine virtue. Expectations like this came from various aspects of the male dominated society. Specifically as reinforced in The Laws of Manu, “A virtuous wife should constantly serve her husband like a god”(pg 73). Compared to today's standards, women in these societies lived highly restricted lives. But there is room to speculate that these women were content within the boundaries of their societies. Possibly because it offered a sense of security.`However, as times began to change in the later Republic 170 BCE, Roman women began to shed their restrictive policies once modeled after the Greek ideal women. As the state policies became centralized women’s influence shifted. Compared to Classical Athens and Gupta, Roman women in the Later Republic and Imperial era experienced a much more freeing existence. In conclusion for the factors behind the influx on women's influence in these ancient societies was patriarchy which in many ways set the tone for the limiting of women. While places like Rome offered religious views that reflected a higher status for women and Athens allowed women to primarily participate in religion, women were still viewed as subordinate in the male dominated society. For centuries patriarchy would
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