Women in ancient Egypt had some special rights other women did not have in other comparable societies. They could own property and were, at court, legally equal to men. However, Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal society dominated by men. Only a few women are known to have held important positions in administration, though there were female rulers and even female pharaohs. Women at the royal court gained their positions by relationships to male kings.F. G. Wilfong: Gender in Ancient Egypt, in: Willeke Wendrich (editor): Egyptian Archaeology, Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology, Malden, Oxford 2010, , p. 165
Work
Most women belonged to the peasantry and worked alongside their husbands. Women were known to manage farms or businesses in the absence of their husbands or sons. Among the upper classes of society, a woman usually did not work outside the home, and instead supervised the servants of the household and her children's education. An exception is the textile industry. Here women are well attested as weavers. A letter found at Lahun and dating around 1800 BC names six female weavers.Marc Collier, Stephen Quirke: The UCL Lahun Papyri: Accounts, Oxford 2006, , 144-145
In the Old Kingdom wealthy women often owned their own households. There were working men and women side by side, and it is not uncommon to find in the staff of a women's household other women with administrative titles. Especially in tomb scenes of the periods, men are often served by men, while women are served by women. Here, the separation of sexes is visible.Henry George Fischer: Egyptian Woman of the Old Kingdom And of the Heracleopolitan Period, Second Edition, revised and augmented, New York 2000 , pp. 19-10 online
Women belonging to families wealthy enough to hire nannies to help with childcare frequently worked as perfume-makers and also were employed in courts and temples, like acrobats, dancers, singers, and musicians, which were all considered respectable pursuits for upper-class women. Women belonging to any class could work as professional mourners or musicians, and these were common jobs. Noblewomen could be members of the priesthood connected to either a god or goddess. Women could even be at the head of a business as, for example, the lady Nenofer of the New Kingdom, and could also be a doctor, as the lady Peseshet during the Fourth dynasty of Egypt.
Family and marriage
Marriage The purpose of marriage was to have more children and descendants of the family.
In the New Kingdom, there was a saying that:
"Take a wife while you are young That she make a son for you She should care for you while you are youthful It is proper to make people Happy is the man whose people are many He is saluted on account of his progeny."
It is true that some egalitarian relationships between husband and wife were implied in Egyptian depictions.
For example, in love songs, brother and sister carried the same significance as husband and wife. "Sn", the Egyptian word for "brother", also meant "peer", "mate", or "second". Thus, the love songs may be referring to the egalitarian relationship between husband and wife.Marriage and Family Life in Ancient Egypt by Ray Erwin Baber, Social Forces, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Mar., 1935), pp. 409-414 The example for inbreeding among royalty was set by the gods since Osiris married his sister, Isis.
However, depictions usually show a husband and wife in an affectionate attitude with their children, so we assume most families were generally happy, but marriage was more realistic. The wife shared responsibilities and worked with her husband. Marriages in ancient Egypt were usually exclusive, but it also was not uncommon for a man of high economic status to have more than one wife. This was especially true if the man's first wife was unable to have children of her own. Although it was possible to divorce, it was very difficult. Marriages were usually arranged by parents, who chose appropriate partners for their children. Despite what the laws stated, it was suggested that women made more family decisions and controlled more of the home than usual. Women had control over most of their property, could serve as legal persons who brought cases to the court, and even worked in public. Husbands did not take total control over their wives property because women had a degree of independence in ancient Egypt. For example, from ca. 365 B.C, a new marriage contract was emerged which mainly protected women from divorce, placing more financial burdens on men.
The influence of queens and queen mothers was considered as a big reason for women's special rights in ancient Egypt compared to other contemporary societies. Queens and queen mothers often had a great power since many pharaohs were very young when they succeeded the throne. For example, the pharaoh Ahmose I in New Kingdom, took advice from his mother, Ahhotep I, and his principal wife, Nefertari.
Although the women of ancient Egypt were viewed as one of the most independent groups of women, widowhood could result in suspicion due to the lack of male control. Widows also gained more legal freedom, being able to buy and sell land, making donations, and even making loans.
Pregnancy and reproduction
There is much evidence of complex beliefs and practices in ancient Egypt related to the important role fertility played in society. If a woman was infertile, her husband could potentially divorce her for not producing heirs. Religious beliefs included rules concerning purification, similar to other religions in the region. Women in Egypt were believed to be eliminating impure elements during menstruation, and were excused from work and could not enter the restricted rooms of temples while menstruating. Fertility rituals were used by couples desiring children. Contraception was permitted as well, and medical texts survive that refer to many contraceptive formulas (although the ingredients are often now difficult to identify). Some formulas, such as drinks made of celery base and beer, are dubious, but others show a basic knowledge of somewhat effective methods, such as a spermicide made of fermented acacia gum, which produces a sperm-killing lactic acid.
Once a woman became pregnant, her uterus was placed under the protection of the goddess Tenenet. Ritual medical care was given by anointing the woman's body with beneficial oils, using a small bottle in the form of a woman posed with her hands placed on a round belly.
Families who wanted to know the sex of their baby sometimes placed grains of barley and wheat in a cloth sachet and soaked them in the pregnant woman's urine; if barley sprouted first, the baby was said to be a boy, and if the wheat sprouted first, the baby was said to be a girl. In ancient Egypt, the word for barley was the synonym of "father." The method spread to Greece, Byzantium, and then to Europe, where it was practiced for centuries before its Egyptian origins were discovered.
Childbirth During childbirth, the pregnant woman was assisted by midwives. She would be shaved, including her head. The midwives supported the woman during labor while she remained in a squatting position on a mat. On the corners of the mat were placed four bricks, believed to be the incarnation of four goddesses: Nut, the great goddess of the sky; Tefnut, the elder, the feminine polarity of the first couple; Aset the beautiful; and Nebet-Het, the excellent.
Women playing an official role at the highest levels
There are few preserved examples of women as high officials. Some women are known to have become Pharaohs. One example of a woman in a high state position is Nebet who became vizier in the Sixth Dynasty. The vizier was the highest state official, second only to the king.Henry George Fischer: Egyptian Woman of the Old Kingdom And of the Heracleopolitan Period, Second Edition, revised and augmented, New York 2000 iISBN 0-87099-967-2, pp. 36-37 online
Egyptian society of antiquity, like many other civilizations of the time, used religion as a foundation for society. Pharaohs were considered to have been anointed by the gods, and the holder of the throne had a divine right. Typically, in ancient societies power was transferred from one male to the next. Women gave birth to the heirs, signaling importance towards marriage, as well. The son inherited the power, and in cases where the king did not have a son, the throne was then inherited by the male members of the family further removed from the king, such as cousins or uncles. In this system, daughters did not automatically inherit power.
Egyptian civilization also passed power to male successors, with some exceptions. Royal blood, a factor determined by divine legitimacy, was the unique criteria for access to the throne. However, the divine essence was transmitted to the royal spouse, as was the case with Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten.
Egyptians preferred to be governed by a woman with royal blood (being divine according to mythology) rather than by a man who did not have royal blood. Also, during crises of succession, there were women who took power. When this happened, the female Pharaoh adopted all of the masculine symbols of the throne. There even exist doubts, in some instances, about the sex of certain Pharaohs who could have been women.
During the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, when Amenhotep I died, his successor Thutmose I appears to have not been his son, at least he was not the child of a secondary wife of the late Pharaoh; if his wife Ahmes was related to Amenhotep I, this union permitted divine legitimacy. For the following successor, princess Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and the Great Royal Wife, enabled Thutmose II, son of his second wife and therefore half-brother of the princess, to gain the throne by marrying him.
It became more common for women to gain the throne in ancient Egypt, as with Hatshepsut, who took the place of her nephew Thutmose III. When Hatshepsut inherited the throne from her late husband and became Pharaoh, her daughter Neferure took on a role that exceeded the normal duties of a royal princess, acquiring a more queenly role. Most surviving representations of Hatshepsut, she was depicted as a male king to respect Egyptian tradition as well as to gain the respect of her people. There were also the Cleopatras, of whom the best known is Cleopatra VII (69 BCE to 30 BCE), famous for her beauty and her relationships with Julius Caesar and then Marc Antony, the leaders who depended upon her throne.
Women who are confirmed to rule in their own right as female pharaohs were: Sobekneferu (Twelfth dynasty of Egypt) Hatshepsut (Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt) Neferneferuaten (Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt) Tausret (Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt) Cleopatra II (Ptolemaic dynasty) Cleopatra III (Ptolemaic dynasty) Berenice III (Ptolemaic dynasty) Cleopatra V/VI (Ptolemaic dynasty) Berenice IV (Ptolemaic dynasty) Cleopatra VII (Ptolemaic dynasty)
Many of the Great Royal Wives also played significant diplomatic and political roles: Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III Nefertiti, wife of Amenhotep IV Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II
Elsewhere in the New Kingdom, the Great Wife was often invested with a divine role: "Wife of god", "Hand of god". Hatshepsut was the first Great wife (of Thutmose II) to receive this latter title.
For women holding office in the highest levels of the bureaucracy, one can cite Nebet, a Vizier in ancient Egypt during the Sixth dynasty of Egypt. It is necessary to recognize that a woman at such a high level of authority remained extremely rare and it was not until the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt that a similar situation can be found. Women did, however, occupy numerous offices such as scribe in the bureaucracy, except during the New Kingdom, where all public bureaucracy posts were filled by men.
There was also the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, granted major spiritual power, but also a power restricted to Thebes.