Role of women in Rome

Essay by chloe moffittHigh School, 11th grade August 2006

download word file, 4 pages 3.4 1 reviews

Downloaded 39 times

Role of Women in Family in Ancient Rome

There have been a lot of discussions about the role of women in Ancient Rome. They had many different roles in many different activities or institutions but these were never clear because no ancient journals or personal diaries written by Roman women were uncovered, so it is not known what their hopes and dreams were, or if they had any. Although in ancient times, there was a male hegamony, Romen women played an important role in family structure. Almost everything about Roman women is a mystery.

When looking at the sources for ancient Roman women, we quickly figure out that most of them were dealing with aristocracy. Men from the upper class had always received the best educaton and they obtained a role with high reputation. Because of this Roman women had a lot of spare time and in this time period they reflected on the world and wrote about it.

The female population didn't only consist of aristocratic women and upper levels of Roman Society, but it is parts of their lives that we have to look at. Evidence for what the poorer women suffered during the Roman Republic and the Empire is very divided into pieces, however, women of all economic levels shared one common role and responsibility, no matter the social position they were in: that of child bearer.

Women, or more correctly, girls, usually got married by the age they were twelve. In our modern world, this seems disreputable, shameful. Apart from all these things, how can the parents give permission to their daughter to start up a new family, maybe a new life? Of course, we have to take those days? circumstances into consideration. Life expectancy was very different in ancient Rome compared with today. There...