The status and characteristics of ancient and modern-day women in Greece evolved from events that occurred in Greek history. In Michael Scott's article, "The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece" (History Today), the place of women and their achievements in Ancient Greece was best described by Thucidydes in this quotation: "The greatest glory [for women] is to be least talked about among men, whether in praise or blame."Scott, Michael. The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece, History Today, Volume: 59 Issue: 11 2009 However, the status of Greek women underwent considerable change and advancement in the 20th century. In 1952, women received the right to vote, which led to their earning places and job positions in businesses and in the government of Greece; and they were able to maintain their right to inherit property, even after being married.Hitton, Shanti. Social Culture of Greece , Travel Tips, USA Today
Women in Bronze Age Greece
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In the Linear B tablets from this era, men are more frequently mentioned by name, title, or occupation. Nonetheless, the references to women offer valuable clues about their roles within palace-controlled economies. Many women are organized into workgroups under palace authority, classified by roles such as textile workers ("linen workers", "sewing women", "headband makers"), food producers ("flour-grinders"), and domestic staff ("attendants"). Some women are identified by their origins, which could be local to the palace or from more distant regions—for instance, records from Pylos in southwestern Greece list women from as far away as the Anatolian coast.
Though these women are not often directly referred to as enslaved, the details of their origins, references to some groups as "captives", and the palace's regulation of their lives and labor suggest they were likely in a state of effective enslavement or, at the very least, heavily dependent on palace authority. Documentation from the palace records their numbers, the provision of basic rations like grain and figs, and the distribution of raw materials for their work, all of which underscore this dependency. Some of these groups are listed under the name of a male supervisor or owner, and many records also note their children, who presumably worked alongside their mothers and learned their trades.
Women of this social standing are seldom identified by name, but there are a few notable instances. For example, a tablet from Knossos on Crete lists a group of women—likely textile workers—by individual names, including one called Wordieya, or "Rosie". Another tablet from Pylos records a woman named Kessandra as the recipient of a substantial ration allocation, enough to support 20 workers for 20 days. Kessandra may have been responsible for supervising a team of male workers, though the specific type of work isn't mentioned. Her role could have been limited to overseeing this group, or she might have held a higher position within the palace's administration, though there's insufficient context to determine her exact responsibilities. Additionally, the identities and genders of the Linear B scribes are unknown; while it's widely assumed most were men, it's possible that some scribes could have been women.
Women in ancient Greece Although most women lacked political and equal rights in Ancient Greece, they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement until the Archaic age. Records exist of women in ancient Delphi, Gortyn, Thessaly, Megara and Sparta owning land, the only durable form of wealth at the time. However, after the Archaic age, women's status worsened, and laws on gender segregation were implemented. In general, Classical Greek women were expected to manage a household, supervising or performing domestic tasks such as weaving cloth, and bearing children. Women universally entered an arranged marriage around age 15. Historian Don Nardo stated "throughout antiquity most Greek women had few or no civil rights and many enjoyed little freedom of choice or mobility."
Detailed records on the status of women in Ancient Greece only describe the behavior and treatment of elites, and have survived for only three poleis: Sparta, Athens and Gortyn. As those states were exceptional in the Greek world, it is unclear how much can be generalized from these records. Most historians assume that women's rights in other Greek polities could be placed somewhere on a continuum between Spartan and Athenian societies.
In Athens
Women in Classical Athens had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of the oikos (household) headed by the male kyrios (master). In Athenian society, the legal term of a wife was known as a damar, a word that is derived from the root meaning of "to subdue" or "to tame". Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their fathers or other male relatives; once married, the husband became a woman's kyrios. Women typically married around age 14 to a husband about twice their age. This system was implemented as a way to help ensure that girls were virgins when they wed. The girl's kyrios typically selected her husband; she would have little input. Often, the kyrios selected a different male relative to ensure that any inherited property remained within the family. Additionally, it was illegal at the time, for citizens of Athens to marry non-Athens people. If caught, non-Athens women were oftentimes sold into slavery as punishment, and men were fined heavily. In more severe circumstances, disenfranchisement was another punishment.
Classical Athens idealized extreme female seclusion. Legal records suggest that respectable women may have been embarrassed in the presence of their male relativesLysias 3.6 or for an unrelated man to simply know their name. Such seclusion was likely impractical for all but the wealthy, as domestic tasks such as fetching water required entering public spaces.
Nevertheless, Athenian women were excluded from essentially all public life. Their gender acted as a permanent disability inhibiting full citizenship, similar to enslavement but without a removal process analogous to manumission. Women were barred from conducting legal proceedings, and their kyrios would represent them instead.
Athenian women had limited right to property, and independently could only enter into a contract worth less than the value of a "medimnos of barley" (a measure of grain), allowing women to engage in petty trading. A woman could acquire property through gifts, dowry and inheritance, but her kyrios had the right to dispose of her property as he wished. If the head of a household died with no male heir to inherit, then a daughter may become the provisional heir of the property, known as epikleros (roughly translated to an heiress). Later, it was common for a woman to marry a close relative of her father if she became adjunct to that property.
Most upper-class Athenian boys would receive private tutelage on rhetoric and physical education, essential for political and military participation. As women participated in neither, Athenian girls received little-to-no formal education. Instead, they would apprentice with their mothers to learn the domestic arts.
The only areas in which Athenian women could participate freely were religious ritual and entertainment/prostitution. Despite the seclusion ideal, many religious festivals involved both genders. The few that did not (especially the Thesmophoria) were restricted to women alone. The priestesshood of Athena held great moral suasion and women appear to have managed private rites of passage. Athenian practice does not appear to have clearly distinguished between entertainment and sex work, and some upper-class hetairai prostitutes appear to have become some of the most independent, wealthy, and influential women in Athens.
In Sparta
The vast majority (~94%) of Spartan women were enslaved helots, a proportion extraordinary in the classical world. These women bore the economic brunt of Sparta's extractive class structure, and had few-to-no legal protections against abuse. They were raped sufficiently often to generate an entire underclass, the nothoi or mothakes. Unusually for slaves in ancient Greece, helots were free to select other helot partners for sexual reproduction, although the paramilitary krypteia would promptly kill any beautiful or unusually-capable children from such unions.
By contrast, the extremely few free ("spartiate") women enjoyed status, power, and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. Spartiate women were formally excluded from military and political life, but began running estates while men were engaged in military activity.Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1975. p. 60-62 Following protracted warfare in the 4th century BC Spartan women owned between 60% and 70% of all Spartan land and property. By the Hellenistic Period, some of the wealthiest Spartans were women.
Sparta reared young spartiate boys for military and paramilitary work away from their family in the agoge, a practice that included extensive, violent physical and emotional abuse but likely little intellectual work. Spartiate girls instead remained with their families, learning household management and possibly literacy. Unlike in other city-states, however, Spartiate women rarely performed domestic labor, which they considered demeaning and better extorted from helots. Helot-made Spartiate clothing was notoriously simple and short relative to in other polities, and scandalously bared girls' thighs.
The extent to which the state supervised spartiate girls' education is unclear. Girls appear to have imbibed Spartan values primarily through music, dance, song, and exercise. Spartiate girls trained athletically as though for combat, and may have participated in the Gymnopaedia ("Festival of Nude Youths"). They likely ceased participation in athletic competitions after marriage, typically around age 20. Plutarch wrote in his Sayings of Spartans: "When someone inquired why they took their girls into public places unveiled, but their married women veiled, he said, 'Because the girls have to find husbands, and the married women have to keep to those who have them!".
Spartan marriage may have been a looser relationship than in other Greek polities. Polybius writes of polygynyPolybius XII.6b.8 and wife-sharing. Spartiate men were rarely at home, and a newlywed spartiate bride would have cross-dressed as a man to better resemble her husband's past sexual partners. Nevertheless, Sparta appears to have placed great value on bearing unflinching sons, and Spartiate women whose children died in battle appear to have been celebrated. Conversely, Plutarch writes of Spartan women killing their cowardly sons themselves.
In law codes and philosophical texts The Gortyn code granted women a much better position than in mainland Greece. All women, including slaves, were protected. Gortyn women, like Spartan women, were able to enter into legal agreements and appear before the court. They were able to own property without male co-ownership or permission. Husband and wife had equal right to divorce. A free, divorced woman could throw her child into the river. Sisters and brothers shared inheritances equally. Epicleros (in Sparta and Gortyn, they were called patrouchoi) had a certain freedom of choice regarding marriage. Namely, if a woman was already married with children and became an epicler, she could choose whether to divorce her husband or not. But a married woman without children who became an epicler had no choice but to divorce and remarry, according to the regulations. In general, a daughter who inherited property could not dispose of it. An exception was that she could sell it or pledge it as payment in the amount of a debt owed to her late father's creditor.