A Critical Analysis of Womens Social Realities in Ancient Greece - Essay Example

A Critical Analysis of Women’s Social Realities in Ancient Greece In ical Greece, social realities of women were highly influenced and infused with male monopolies. Social views and attitudes to women’s physicality, rights and status are often similar to those of a male dominated society, though some were surprisingly modern. In a number of cases in Greek medical science, law, social status, etc, women were considered as inferior and subservient to their male counterparts. Greek society was accustomed to view women as addendum to the males. A close analysis of the Greek medical treatises by some anonymous Greek scholars including Hippocrates1 shows that though Greek medical science has made a significant effort to look deep into the scientific rationales to explain women’s physical realities, the tendency to view women as addendum to their male counterparts has always prevailed over these medical interpretations. But in other sectors such as economy, politics, religion, law, etc there were strictly demarcated dichotomies between men’s and women’s role. But the Spartan women would enjoy more civil, social and economic rights than the Greek women did. Scholars argue that as a military polis, Sparta had been able to forsake the gender bias in its attitudes to women and allow its women to enjoy more freedom according to their military career and services to the state. As revealed in Hippocrates’ corpus, ancient Greek medical science was highly infused with male ideology and tendency to view women’s reality as “special cases”2. The social norms to protect women’s body from others except for their husbands require female doctors to treat women. In serious events like childbirth, women had to rely on midwives and, in some cases, on female doctors. This social restriction essentially certifies the view that women’s body does not belong to them, rather to their husband. According to Sue Blundell, the classical Greek medical treatises are based on the ‘empirically-acquired knowledge’ as well as ‘an ideological view of the physical nature of women’.3 In fact, the ideologies of the male dominated society seem to dominate medical discussion about the female reproductive system, as in this regard, Sue Blundell says, “In the discussions of women’s reproductive system in particular, ideas about women’s physiology can be seen to reflect and reinforce ideas about their social and moral identity”.4 Greek views on female puberty, menstruation, sex, reproduction, conception, menopause, etc necessarily reflects women’s subjectivity to their male counterparts. Marriage as well as sexual intercourse was supposed to be a solution to a number of female problems of female physiology. Menstruation is one of these problems that were thought to be cured with sexual intercourse. In cases of menstrual hallucination and suicidal tendency of young girls, one of Hippocratic authors’ advice is as following: “My prescription is that when virgins have this trouble, they should marry as soon as possible. If they become pregnant, they will be cured”.5 Young girls who had reached puberty were thought to be uncontrollable and, therefore, to be miscreant in the society. In the case of sex and reproduction, a woman’s value had been assessed in terms of her ability to give a child. In a male-centered society, a woman without fertility was nothing but a barren land which gives nothing to its owner. Like most other male dominated societies of human civilization, classical Greek society used to view women as a property of the males. Therefore, Greek women could not inherit property and run business. According to Sue Blundell, “Athenian Women could not by law enter into any contact ‘beyond the value of one medimnos of barley’: a mdimnons was a measure of grain, [which is] sufficient to keep a family fed for five or six days”.6 Classical Greek women could acquire property in three ways: inheritance, dowry and gifts. Indeed, inheritance was a legal means which allowed a woman to inherit wealth as a mediator and then to transfer it to grandsons of a Kyrios. Though evidences show that lower class women could participate in outdoor money-earning activities, women from wealthier families were ideally absent from economic activities. In a radically male dominated society, the state’s legal system would not allow women to enjoy independence existence. A woman was expected to spend her whole life under the guardianship of “Kyrios or male guardians”7 who must have to be her father or her husband. In this regard, Sue Blundell comments, “Until she was married, a woman came under the guardianship of her father, or male next-of-kin. On her marriage, her husband took over the role of the role of kyrios.”8 In this rigidly patriarchal society, the role of a Kyrios was to provide food, clothe, shelter, etc and to satisfy other needs. Such patriarchal norms, in fact, prevented women in general from economic activities. Consequently the economic dependency on the male resulted into women’s subservience to men. Necessarily women were excluded from the outside world and thus the mere plaything in the hands of their male counterparts. This exclusion of women from outside world had also determined the prospect of a woman to occupy a judiciary post, as Sue Blundell says, “An Athenian woman was barred from conducting legal proceedings on her own behalf and there is reason to believe that normally she could not even give evidence in court. It seems instead to have been presented by her kyrios”.9 In classical Greece, women could not enjoy the status of a full citizen. They were not considered as ‘politai’, a Greek term which is equivalent to modern concept, ‘citizen’. Only men would enjoy the full status of a citizen, whereas women could enjoy partial civil rights, as Sue Blundell says in this regard, “It must be borne in mind that for Athenian women ‘citizenship’ meant only that they had a share in the religious, legal and economic order o the Athenian community”.10 Women could participate in non-political public gatherings to a limited extent. Before the introduction of Pericles’ citizenship law, there was “no difference between Athenian women and slaves”11. Indeed, the Athenian women’s political status was much different from the Spartan women’s political status. Spartan women could enjoy the civil rights, to a great extent, in terms of their military performance. For the Spartan girls also, it was compulsory to attend the ‘agoge’ where they were taught athletics, wrestling and other basic fighting skills. Some historians claim that there was no difference between men and women’s training at those schools. But a girl’s training generally would end when they reached 18. Such physically mature girls had to marry the men according to their physical fitness and strength. In case, a girl failed to complete the training in the agoge, the state would seize their right as a citizen who had to lead life in service to those women who were militarily successful. But those girls who would complete their training successfully would enjoy more rights in the state. Though these women were married, they could attend the “Syssieta”, a social club for the Greek male and female citizens. When the successful Spartan boys at the agoges would become 20 years old, they were considered as soldiers and they were sent to serve in the army. The Spartan soldiers had to serve in the army up to the age of forty. Classical Greek society was typically patriarchal. Women’s status in the society was subservient to men. Ancient Greek medical science made a limited effort to view the female body from a neutral point of view; yet the patriarchal ideologies and moralities seemed to dominate the medical scholars’ perception of female body. Indeed, the male-centered ideologies ensured the male-superiority by asserting that men had positive therapeutic effects on women. Indeed, this same male-superiority would convince the Greek society to assign the guardianship of a woman to a man. Since a man played the role of the protector, women were excluded from the outside world. Consequently, women were not allowed to perform outdoor earning activities. Greek law would not allow them to inherit property as men did. Even they did not enjoy political as well as other civil rights. They could not participate in political activities. But they were allowed to participate in outdoor religious festivals. Indeed, their social status was not different from that of the slaves and foreigners. References Blundell, S. (1995) Women in Ancient Greece. Harvard: Harvard University Press Read More