Gender roles are an important aspect of any society. It is vital to know the role of each sex in the society for a communal balance because men as well as women are expected to know their roles in the society and act according to what is expected of them. In the Greek and Roman societies, the question of gender was taken very seriously. There were very strict prescriptions in gender in the Greek and Roman worlds.
In both cultures, the man is placed higher than the woman. The lives of women were always confined and sheltered. A woman was given the place of a homemaker hence her place was just at home. Unlike the women, the men lived their lives out free without any restrictions. At that time, the women had accepted their position and did not complain unlike the modern days where women are more independent, have a voice and have rights in the society.
In both Roman and Greek cultures, women were expected to be under their fathers care until they got married. This means that the man was the head of the family, and the wife was supposed to act as per the husband’s wishes. The women were given subservient roles in the household setting. The woman was expected to give birth to children and the man was accorded the responsibility of caring for the family. For a woman, there was nothing as beautiful as getting married and making a wonderful home for her husband and her children. In fact, that was what most women dedicated their lives to. On the same note, in Rome, for a woman to succeeded in playing her role, she was expected to have been educated herself in order to teach her children well. In Greece, women received limited or no education at all.
In both worlds, education was a fundamental aspect of the society. The girls were taught to act feminine and taught the importance of maintaining their innocence (virginity) until they were married. They were taught how to conduct themselves with modesty, especially around men. The boys were taught how to act manly. They were taught how to treat their wives with respects. They were also taught skills like fighting and handling weapons like in the gladiator platforms.
In Greece, women were not allowed to participate in public affairs or to own any property especially land; only the man was allowed to own anything. Women could only be seen in public affairs such as weddings or funerals when necessary. In the Roman culture, women were independent they were almost at the same level as men. They were allowed to own property; this gave them independence. Women also had their businesses, and more interestingly they were allowed to take part in public affairs, political affairs and could even advise their husbands on political issues. Men found it fulfilling to take part in public affairs as women found it satisfying to give their advice on from the sidelines.
The famed thinker, Aristotle, once said that there were different roles for men and women sharply defined. The man was to acquire, and the woman was to administer. In a household setting, the burden of feeding the family fell solely to the man, the provider. Many philosophers gave their take on how best gender roles ought to have been shared. A staple in all versions was the fact that gender roles were definite, and one could not substitute positions for convenience. A woman was also spared the temptations to engage in wanton dalliances.
Once they came of age (usually 12 years), getting married was a given to a Graeco-Roman woman. Marriage had nothing to do with love as prospective husbands needed only approval from the wife’s father. A husband was as much a master as your father was. A woman was then at her husband’s beck and call. It is worth noting that although women had a lesser share in the marriage, men were still expected to respect and defend their wives. A woman was supposed to be secluded as much as possible and occupied by popular crafts like weaving. A respectable lady was never to eat along her husband’s male guests. It is perhaps unsurprising that some of these marriages did not work out, and with it came to a rather simple divorce process. A husband needed only to send his wife back home to her parents. Children were left with their fathers. The disgruntled man was the law as the then ‘dishonorable,’ divorced woman had no chance of reprieve.
Graeco-Roman women were sequestered away, but it is truly difficult to understand the scope of which because accounts relied on are retrieved from texts written by men. This shows that education was a precinct of men. A woman could become educated but to very limiting levels given the rarity of women-written texts. Roman girls, for instance, were only privy to informal education taught by mother and father. In a sense, then it highlighted the woman’s role as an educator since the husband was usually out bread winning.
Women had the added anxiety after childbirth because there was an actual chance the father would not expose the newborn. Exposure was a seal of approval a baby got when their father picked it up from his feet, placed by a usually worried mother. Exposure was a mark of honor. An unrecognized child was left to starve to death, abandoned by a riverside.
In both Greece and Rome, a woman was not expected to speak in public and to go out without a veil was grounds enough for a divorce. Life in the Graeco-Roman world must have been tough to wade through for women, in a misogynistic epoch. A woman’s place was a voiceless existence under patriarchal supervision.
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