How was the role of women in Sparta(450 BC),Rome(100) and France(1200) ?

Question

in political,economic and social terms...thank you

Answer 1

http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/antigone/Athenian-vs-Spartan-Women.htm

http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/csts205w5.html

http://www.moyak.com/researcher/resume/papers/roman_women.html

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_rights_of_women

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/medievalrenaisfrance/

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/ancientmedievalwomen/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/12/earlyshow/leisure/books/main666429.shtml Modern French Women I found this site intersesting & humorous

http://etrc.lib.umn.edu/frenwom.htm

Answer 2

In Sparta women actually had a lot of power, compared to other women of the time atleast. They were responsible for business, raising children(very important to Spartans), and maintaining the realm while the Equals were at war. Sparta was a rigid militaristic society that valued the body and loyalty to the state above all else, they enforced strict codes of fitness that both men and women had to follow.

Answer 3

sparta-
women had tons of freedom. They were a military state and basically once all the men went off to war, the women ran the place. They could exercise in the nude (...awsome) and were encouraged to. 'Strong women make strong babies'. Politically they were powerful sinc they had to run the place. Economically, i dont really know. Socially, they were accepted and not repressed like women in athens who had to have an escort just to walk around. In sparta, they could exercse nude!.

Yea, france and rome your on your own but hope that helps

Answer 4

Spartan Women were part of the State, a crucial part. The state was all important and individuals took back seats. Woman had to undertake the basic running of hte State so as to free the men to devote all the energies to war and warrior training. When sending their men off to war Spartan women told theme to come back with their shield or it. In other words, if you left the battlefield unable to hoist your shield, you had better be dead.

Late Rebuplican Roman women (Imperial roman ladies were different) took Cornelia, the Mother of the Gracchi as their model. Unlike Spartan women, they may not have had a direct role in running the state, but their influence was immense. CORNELIA CORNELIUS, c. ? - 100 BC


Perhaps no woman better represented the paradigm of the ideal Roman matrona (wife) than Cornelia, forever known as “mother of the Gracchi.” Born in the late Republic, in her own and later times she was held up as a supreme exemplar of Roman feminine virtues by men and women. True to the low profile for which she was universally admired, no statue has survived of the mother of the Gracchi (although a famous one was set up in Rome after her death, perhaps the first statue of a non-legendary woman).

Cornelia was the daughter of legendary warrior-hero Publius Scipio Africanus (who defeated Hannibal in the second Punic War). Both the dates of her birth and death can only be inferred. She married well (to patrician cousin Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus) and bore him twelve children. Only three lived to adulthood: a daughter, Sempronia, and two sons, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

The Roman Model


" In the old days, every child born to a respectable mother was brought up not in the room of a bought nurse but at his mother's knee. It was her particular honor to care for the home and serve her children…and no one dared do or say anything improper in front of her. She supervised not only the boys' studies but also their recreation and games with piety and modesty. Thus, tradition has it, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, Aurelia, mother of Julius Caesar, and Atia, mother of Augustus, brought up their sons and produced princes. "

But by France of the middle ages, the role of women in secular society had diminshed a great deal. However, there was still inflluential women in Religious life. And some of the great Princesses and Queens managed to weild a great deal of temporal power, sometimes through their men, and sometimes in their own right. In Particular you might want to compare Eleanor of Aquitaine and Heloise:

Disciple and Correspondent to Peter Abelard
ca1101-1164

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Heloise was a highly educated young woman when her legendary correspondence with the philosopher Peter Abelard began. Peter the Venerable stated, upon the occasion of Abelard's death, that Heloise was a woman "wholly devoted to philosophy in the true sense," who "left logic for the Gospel, Plato for Christ and the academy for the cloister."

Heloise demonstrated in her letters that she was well versed in the argument skills of the logicians. She probably partook in many of the debates on her lover's philosophy, namely his questions of nominalism versus realism.

She left no other published materials besides her letters to Abelard. Heloise was probably educated by Fulbert, her uncle, in Paris. By the age of 18 she was Abelard's student. Following Abelard's castration Heloise entered the convent at Arguenteil, and they did not meet for 10 years, until they began the Benedictine House of the Paraclete.

Heloise led her convent as Abbess of the convent of Paraclete, Nogent, France, until the time of her death in 1164. She was buried next to Abelard at Paraclete.

Eleanor, on the other hand, was the oldest of three children, Eleanor's father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and her mother was Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimeric I, Vicomte of Chatellerault. William's and Aenor's marriage had been arranged by his father, William IX of Aquitaine the Troubador, and her mother, Dangereuse, William IX's long-time mistress. Eleanor was named after her mother and called Aliénor, which means the other Aenor in the langue d'oc (Occitan language), but it became Eléanor in the northern Oil language.

She was raised in one of Europe's most cultured courts, the birthplace of courtly love. By all accounts, Eleanor was the apple of her father's eye, who made sure she had the best education possible: she could read, speak Latin, and was well-versed in music and literature. She also enjoyed riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was very outgoing and stubborn. She was regarded as very beautiful during her time; most likely she was red-haired and brown-eyed as her father and grandfather were. She became heiress to Aquitaine (the largest and richest of the provinces in what would become modern France) and seven other countries.

She rode out on Crusade with her first husband phillip. She rode with one breast bared, like an ancient Amazon.

Later through her second marriage, she became the mother of two of Englands most famous kings.

Answer 5

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