Women in Ancient Times Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Women in Ancient Times - Essay Example It was only when the Macedonians subjugated the Hellenistic world that the position of women became comparatively prominent and some were provided formal education just like what was given to the males of that era (Marrou 35). For Athenians, "citizenship" was significant, particularly after political restructuring was implemented and democratic transformations were in place. Being a citizen meant that an individual can own land, and when that person reaches the age of thirty, he can hold political office. Citizens could also have a voice in the ecclesia and they can cast their votes on all state affairs. Unfortunately, men were the citizens of Athens and all women were barred (Just 13). This segregation of women signified that women had no political rights, it likewise implied that they could not own land (something which represented power in the ancient world) and that they could never hold political office. In primeval Israel, as in most of the ancient world, marriage was the ultimate aspiration. Arranging marriages were the "in thing" of those times as parents exert effort in searching appropriate husbands for their daughters from the same tribe or from a neighboring village.In those ancient civilizations, the husband was compelled to sustain the needs of the wife, however, unlike their Athenian counterpart; Israeli women can keep their own property. In addition, during those olden days, it was understood that a married couple was in reality an economic partnership; if and when the man becomes insolvent or incapable of meeting his financial obligations, the woman will be sold into slavery along with him. Similarly, in that era, a woman's primary obligation (and considered to be her ultimate bliss) was to give birth, if possible to a son to carry on the man's name and ancestry. It was so important for a manto have a son that a recurrent ground for divorce---something that is not diffic ult to attain for a man---was a woman's incapacity to bear a child. In fact, in wealthy families, if the wife couldnot conceive, she could give her slave to her husband. The child produced from that union would provide the legal wife as much status as just like giving birth herself. In some circumstances where a married man died without leaving a son, the man's brother or the closest male relative, was anticipated to marry the widow; in this manner, she would have a husband to support her and still produce a son closely related to the dead husband and continue his lineage (Lualdi n.p.; Clancy-Smith 1-56). In Babylon, the most popular and the most comprehensive of the primordial Roman law codes was the Hammurabi.As one remembers, it was the Hammurabi Code which decreed that the one who demolishes the eye of another should have his own eye snuffed out as retribution and the one who murders another should himself be put to death, hence giving rise to the idiom "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In old Babylonia, women's position was comparatively elevated as they could be in possession of and become heirs to properties. In addition, a widow has lawful privileges to acquire and utilize her late husband's assets as long a she continues to live in his house; also, she has the right to leave and remarry, however, she could