Greek and Roman women lived in a world where strict gender roles were prescribed, where each person was judged in terms of compliance with gender-specific standards of conduct. Generally, men were placed above women in terms of autonomy, control and overall freedom. Whereas men lived in the world at large, active in public life and free to come and go as they willed, women's lives were sheltered. They were centered around, and in the case of the Greeks, largely confined to the house they lived in. Women were assigned the role of homemaker, where they were expected to be good wives and mothers, but not much of anything else. Moreover, a woman rarely achieved independence, being under the dominion of her father until he turned her over to her …show more content…
Women’s rights varied depending on the city state and class but women rarely had as much power as men. As prescribed by law, women were not allowed to participate in politics and public affairs or to own land and they were under the guardianship of the respective male head of the household. (“An alienated women,”) The gender segregation prescribed that the woman could not participate in public life like in the agora. Agora is like a public open space used for assemblies and markets only. On special occasions like funerals, religious festivals and weddings, the woman was allowed or even expected to leave the house and exercise her social role (“An Athenians women’s life”) In this paragraph I will be getting more in depth with the women’s roles in Greece and Rome. Within the protected sphere of the household her duties varied, ranging from raising the children, supervising the work of slaves, to making clothes and agricultural work. However, her freedom was still restricted by her husband whose wishes she had to obey “as laws appointed for her by divine will”