Women In Ancient Athens

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Due to the social structure in ancient Sparta women were able to have more freedom and access to rights and responsibilities, then women in ancient Athens. In comparing both civilizations we need to ask What legal rights did Spartan women have that Athenian women did not have? Or Was the education system in Athens fair and equitable to women, and how was Spartan education different? As well as to compare both cities we need to look at how was personal freedom different to Athens than Sparta? And lastly overall we need to consider how influential were women in Athens and Spartan society?
List the conclusions you have come to through your research. (this will be the key points of your argument)

Spartan women enjoyed their higher social standing …show more content…
Women today are valued and respected with in society where as back in ancient Sparta and ancient Athens it was very hard for women to do things that was not household duties, as this is what women’s daily lives jobs were considered to do. Athens Women, no matter what the class or age, were given no freedom at all. (Plutarch sates) Any property or money she acquired through the death of a family member or through inheritance, became the property of her household, which was controlled by the curios. This meant that an Athenian woman could never have any real financial say in her life. Her dowry was in no legal sense her own, in all divorce cases, women lost their children http://www.moyak.com/papers/athenian-women.html this indicates that Athenian women were looked down upon in society and had no rights or value. To reinforce this evidence (NAME) …show more content…
Influence with in society was highly valued and respected, both Athens and Sparta were well respected areas within Greece. Women’s role with in society were quite basic and had no effect to the civilisation at all. To begin with, a main role of a respectable woman in ancient Athens was to stay home, keep pretty, and bear children. Her life cantered on the house and the children. Most citizen wives had slaves to do the cooking, cleaning. http://www.ancientathens.org/culture/women-athens women were believed to be intellectually weak and therefore inferior, as well as not being classed as citizens in Athens even if you were born in the country. This information just displays how little influence Athenian women had in ancient Athens. In contrary, women in ancient Sparta were classed as citizens http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/spartanwomen.htm then Athenian women, this is just one indication to why Spartan women had a better life. In Spartan society, women could own estates, travel freely without male escort, and even initiate divorce. These rights were far from the historical norm. Indeed, one may see many parallels between women’s rights in Ancient Sparta and those found in the modern developed world. http://www.returnofkings.com/50732/womens-rights-are-a-function-of-economy-ancient-sparta in summary, the fact that Spartan women had access to rights showed how
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