The Roles of Men and Women in Ancient Greek Society

In most of the ancient Greek world, gender roles were fairly static throughout time and outside circumstances had little or no influence on gender construction. Men functioned within the public sphere, whereas women were restricted to the private, domestic sphere. This was the typical gender construction of most ancient societies, and remained so in much of the world until modern times. Unlike the women of Athens, Spartan women were taught reading, and writing, but were …

…on couches and were fed and entertained by the slaves while the women and children ate in another room. Men taught their children and wife, if she wasn't already done so by her father. Men made all of the decisions in Athens. They treated the women as if they had no brain to do things on their own. Men were given the most responsibility and, therefore, were considered the most important people in ancient Greece.