Ancient Egyptian Women
Ancient Egyptian WomenTutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun
Attitudes Towards Women
Women had the same legal rights to men of the same social class
At school, girls were traditionally expected to play with dolls and model kitchens, girls' toys, boys were expected to play with toy soldiers. Boys were expected to study woodwork, while girls study needlework; boys were to specialize in science, while girls were to specialize in arts subjects.
Their occupations: marriage, running a household, and bearing children.
Wives and sometimes their mothers were shown seated at the side of their husbands on tombs..
There were three kinds of women: the mother, the wife, and the harlot. Mothers were the highest of these.
Women in the Middle Kingdom were preistesses for the goddess Hathor, since Hathor was closely connected with sexuality, fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth.
Women had the same funeral equipment as men of equal status. They expected to share the same afterlife.
During the New Kingdom, only men could be priests. Instead of being priestesses, many elite women took over as musicians for the dieties. "Their role was to perform the musical accompaniment to the temple rituals."
Most marriages were arranged, hopefully with a richman, even if he was older.
Cousins were considered a good choice for a marriage partner because family property did not leave the family. The same is true today in Egypt.
In ancient Egypt, the women in a family played an important part in arranging a marriage. Suitors sometimes used a female go-between or approached the girl's mother to ask for support.
As in most countries, both ancient and modern marriage, motherhood and home-making were the principal jobs of women.
Love in a marriage was common as shown by this poem:
"My mind turned to my love for you
When only half of my hair was plaited.
I came running to find you
And forgot about doing my hair.
But if you will release me,
I will finish dressing my hair
And be ready in a minute!"
Nakedness was common.
Women had only one dress used for special occasions. The fabric and pleating in a dress denoted a woman's rank, the better fabrics were reserved for royalty.
Most women went barefooted even after men began wearing sandles.
Wigs were usually worn by the upper class and the styles changed from the Old Kingdom when wigs were short with ringlets to the longer, braided styles seen in reliefs from the New Kingdom.
Jewelry was worn by all the people and was used to ward off evil, instead of being used as adornment or to show rank
There were few women rulers because the people were more comfortable with male rulers.
The four women pharohs were:
Royal wives had great influence over their husbands and their children
followed as ruler.
Living in ancient Egypt would have been better for most women than living in a western country even as late as the 1800's. Even in America, women were considered property and could not divorce their husbands or keep their children if their husbands dicorced them. From what I read, women were a part of the decision-making in families and were considered an important part of daily life. Why did these things change in Egypt and other parts of the world as times went by? There are some traditions we should have kept when people interacted with the Egyptians
Author: Brenna Farrell Copyright 2001 |
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