It is difficult to fully understand the role of women in ancient Egyptian society because the understandings of the society and government are still incomplete. There are also two other major problems, those being that there is very little source material on women, and the material that has been found was biased by the ideas and minds of previous Egyptologists. The only source material that has survived from great kingdoms of Egypt is material that has been either found in tombs on the walls and sarcophaguses, or carved on major government and religious document. None of the writings on papyrus and other delicate materials survived.
This material, which has survived, is the writings of the Egyptian literate male elite. In their writings the also did not show any emotions or feelings, this was not the style of the Egyptian people, writings were purely a record keeping device. Because of these limitations, “It is essential to avoid the temptation to extrapolate from the particular to the general, a process which can only too easily introduce error. ” Upper class men, who had been schooled in their craft, did all the writings. As a result, there is very little material that deal with the lower peasant class.
They were all illiterate and unable to record their tales. When studying women in Ancient Egypt, the great majority of the available texts discuss the lives of the upper class, which composed only a small percentage of the Egyptian population. In Pharonic Egypt, women were the legal equals of men. They were not denied any rights in accordance of the law because of their gender. Women, like men, could own property, coming into it either through inheritance, as a payment for goods or services, or through purchase. Women could buy houses and goods, and with them, they were allowed to do as they chose.
Being landholders and people of property afforded ancient Egyptian women a reasonable amount of social freedom. They could travel about freely in towns without veiled faces. In their own homes, women could move about as they pleased, they were not forced to remain in one section of the house or forbidden from other common areas as they were in other societies of the time. Women could initiate legal proceedings, and they were responsible for their own actions. They could be the executors of wills and even sign their own marriage contracts. A woman could even be the witness for a signed business transaction.
While women did have the same legal standing as men in their society, there is hardly any mention of a woman serving as a member of the court. Ancient Egyptian courts were composed of members of the society who were trusted and revered. Marriage did not affect a woman’s legal standing; a married woman had the same rights as a single one. This is because property did not automatically transfer over to the husband after he married a woman. Rather she remained in control of all of her assets until the day that she would die. Her land and her affairs remained hers, unaffected by her mate.
In fact, a woman in ancient Egypt had the legal right to loan money to her husband. Many scenes, drawn in tombs, depict the social freedom of women. They are shown partaking in business transactions with their husbands, and at times, some women were even executing their own business ventures. At hunts, they are shown in crowds cheering for the success of the hunters, and women are shown sitting along side of men at great gatherings and feasts. While women in ancient Egypt were not free in terms of most of today’s societies, neither were men. Neither man nor woman knew anything of the modern concept of liberty and equality.
Their society was hierarchical, and not based on free will. During the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history, Greek women enjoyed a much higher status living in Egypt, than they would have back in Greece, “It has been suggested that perhaps Greek women observed Egyptian women and were encouraged to assert themselves. ” The women broke from the Greek traditions of segregation in the home, and continuous chaperoning. The picture that emerges from all of the found ancient Egyptian writings is one that shows women not playing a very active or prominent role in the public sphere the way that the men did.
Instead, a woman’s ultimate role in society was that of mother and nurturer. She was to be the foundation of the family, upon which all rested. This was not a matriarchal society, but rather the home and the family were the responsibility of the wife. Family played such an important role in the spiritual lives of the Egyptians that it transferred over into daily life. A father’s heir were his most valuable possessions, not only would they continue his legacy, but they would also be in charge of caring for his tomb as he moved along in the afterlife.
The role of the caretaker and nurturer was very important; a mother’s family depended upon it. The reliefs that have been found show Egyptian women in the midst of housework. They are shown cleaning, washing clothes, and preparing food. Women could be hired to perform these jobs in the houses of the wealthy; cooking, cleaning, baking bread and brewing beer. They were not alone in these jobs though, men worked alongside in the same capacity as women. The wife was also responsible for caring for the ancestors. She would keep their tombs clean and leave offering at the appropriate times.
The wife had the charge of praying for the dead, praying for the safe passage into the next world, and strength and wisdom along their journey. The woman’s role in the Egyptian family is explained by the popularity of the god Iris, the god of support and resource. Iris was the wife of the slain Osiris and the mother of Horus, who would later avenge his father’s death. Iris as a wife and mother devoted her time to raise a child who would understand the importance of the family, and he would fight back against those who took his away. The primary purpose of marriage in ancient Egyptian society was to build a family.
The family was the center of the Egyptian society, and it was the woman’s, wife and mother, role to keep it a keel, so that new generations could be born. The father was the head of the family, but the wife had a good deal of power too, the home was her domain. The success of a home was the wife’s responsibility. Husbands and wives yearned for children. Children both brought them the simple joys of parenting, but in the ancient Egyptian culture, children also provided security for their elderly parents. The eldest son was born into the position of being his parents’ caretaker, and he would inherit his fathers business.
Also children increased a woman’s status in society, she was seen as succeeding at her job. The Egyptian children were the link to future generations, but they were also expected to reciprocate the care their parents gave them, especially to their mothers. Children were to carry out the primary roles in the funeral. Children were charged with the responsibility of caring for their dead ancestors. They brought offerings to the tombs of their ancestors at special times of the year; it was their duty to make sure that they were taken care of in the afterlife. There was no limit to how many children a family could or would have.
The society saw that a family should have as many children as possible, a large family was looked upon as a blessing both of good fortune, but it also meant that there would more people to care for the tombs of the dead relatives. If a family was unable to have children, the Egyptians had adoption, adopted children were taken in with no hesitation, and they were a vital part of the family. Although women knew children were important and a sign of success, there were means of birth control. Women had devices that they could insert into the womb and birth canal, making it a hostile environment in which fertilization could not take place.
Egyptian women also knew that continued lactation had some sort of tie with not getting pregnant. Childbirth was a very important moment in a woman’s life. It was both the consummation of great physical burden, and of the societal urges. It was also a very dangerous moment in a woman’s life. Many women died in the process of childbirth from complications. Women gave birth while in a squatting position. Their delivery was attended to by midwives and friends. There were remedies that had been found to speed up the process.
At the same time, the gods Isis and Horus were called upon to make the delivery fast and safe. So many women died in the throws of birthing, that the life expectancy rate of women was four years shorter than for men. The first weeks after birth were very risky for the newborn, and the mother was constantly with her child, nursing it and caring for it. Even so, many children died from intestinal infections and the like. If a mother and child died from complications, they were interned and buried together. A mother continued to breast feed her children until they grew to be three years old.
The Egyptians knew that the breast milk was far less likely to be contaminated than their everyday food. Because breast-feeding was so important, women used many different remedies to increase lactation. There were balms that could be rubbed on the back and breast, and other concoctions that were consumed Nurses were hired to care for the children during their everyday lives, washing them, looking after them. These nurses could be men or women; there was no gender limitation or requirement. The only gender specific job was that of the wet nurse, who obviously needed to be a woman.
She was a woman whose child had died, or who had an excess supply of milk. These nurses stayed with the children until they were weaned, but their relationships were often life long, they have been depicted in the scenes found on the walls of tombs. These nurse were not hired because mothers did not want to be with their children, but rather because the mothers had so many other obligations to the family, her husband. During their first year, mothers would carry their children at all times; the children were carried in slings, either across their mother’s back or shoulder.
Once the children had grown up, the boys were sent off for training, and the girls followed their mother around. It then became a mother’s duty to teach their daughters how to weave, to bake, to brew, along with all of the other important skills. The mother tried to prepare her daughter for marriage and childbearing. When they boys left home for schooling, or were sent into the fields to work with their fathers, their mothers were put in charge providing them with their daily rations of food. The daily responsibilities of a wife were to look after the children.
She needed to clean both her home and her family’s linen. A wife needed to prepare food and drink for her family. She also was charged with going to the market and procuring needed goods. Because of the dry climate, the wife spent a good portion of her days sweeping and cleaning her home, and washing the dust out of clothes. She would not clean the clothes with soap, but instead she would wash them in the river or a canal, and then pound them clean and dry on a large stone. The largest portion of a woman’s day though was spent preparing and cooking food.
The basic diet was made up of bread, onions, cheese, and chickpeas. A wealthy family could afford to supplement their meals with beef, mutton, goat, and at times gazelle and antelope, and with fruits like dates, and figs. Domestic honey was a craved delicacy. Each day the wife would bake the supply of bread and brew the day’s beer. At meals, the husband was served first. He was followed by his children, and finally the last servings went to the mother. This was always the smallest, and possibly just the scraps.
Aside from cooking and cleaning, women had other chores like fetching water from the river or the well, or procuring fuel for her fire. In her spare time, a woman would weave and spin. In the lower class, peasant women lived a very hard life physically, with only short “pauses” to bear children. In the upper classes, life was easier; the menial chores of housework were performed by servants. As a result, the wealthy classes had much more leisure time, and the women spent their time playing with their children, or accompanying their husbands on hunts.
Pictures have been found depicting women playing board games and with pet animals. Even though the mother had so much responsibility, she still developed a very special bond with her children. It was much a much deeper bond than a child would have with his or her father. Sons held their mothers on an emotional level, which was even higher than his wife was. Owning property and accumulating great wealth may have given Egyptian women social mobility, but it did not open up a large pool of available jobs.
Men were the only members of the society who were schooled in arts of reading and writing, and it was a very small percentage that was afforded the privilege. Being a largely illiterate society, most Egyptian men and women spent their lives as uneducated peasants. The Egyptian society did not force women to remain at home, but neither did it encourage them to become educated. So, since it was only men who were literate, women were automatically excluded from the government, the army and other jobs in civil service, and the high positions in religion.
Women did not play a large role in the public life. Women did not hold public office, but there are moments during the middle kingdom when there were women in positions of authority like treasurer, or in the position of an overseer. Women were able to find jobs in the fields of the priesthood, mid-wifery, as professional mourners, dancers and musicians and in goods manufacturing. Prostitution was not an occupation for working class women, it was not a practice common in ancient Egyptian society, and there has been no evidence of prostitutes found. In the priesthood, women achieved the highest status.
Religion was a large part of life, and great religiosity was looked at as the sign of high standing. For the first two kingdoms, the priesthood was closed to any women not in the upper class, but by the new kingdom, married and unmarried women were free to work too. The job of priestess was prestigious; it was an indication of both social status, and respectability. As a priestess, a woman’s duties were diverse. The most important was that they were charged with the duty of impersonating a goddess during special ceremonies. They also took part in the cult of the dead, and were musicians and chantresses.
Women in the priesthood were divided into four groups, each group for a month in a rotating four-month cycle. The leader of each group was a celebrated musician and the wife of an important man. As a priestess, women were not forced to follow strict routines of celibacy, as the men were, a link to the societal importance of child bearing. By the new kingdom, when jobs in the priesthood were open to all women, the position did not carry the ultra high status that it did earlier, due to the larger amounts of priestesses, but they still were revered.
Many Egyptian women found employment as midwives. There were no schools to train the women; instead, they were trained on the job. Egyptian doctors were not concerned with obstetrics; they spent their times worrying about ailments and diseases. Since many women died during the process of childbirth, wet nurses were needed through out the society. Women with extra milk were hired to feed children, and the other wet nurses were mothers whose children died during childbirth, or as infants. Mourning was another option for Egyptian women.
Those that could afford it would hire a person to grieve openly in the house while the dead were being prepared for and during the mummification process. They would stand by tombs and keep watch. At times, they would tear their clothes and redden their skins by slapping themselves while wailing and mourning. A woman with enough talent could make a career as a dancer or as a singer. Dancing was originally only a religious ritual, but it became secular. Subsequently dancing was an enjoyed and accepted part of life. Men and women could be dancers. Even at special moments, the pharaoh would take part in the enjoyment, and he would dance.
Secular dancing appears on the walls of the tombs, showing that at some moment people began to hire dancers for events and festivities to provide entertainment. As a musician, a woman would work along side of men. Music had always been a proper accompaniment for religious ceremonies, but it was also a form of enjoyed entertainment. Every large household had its own musicians. The musicians played a wide array of instruments, from rudimentary flutes and harps, to reed instruments. Percussion was a large part of the ancient Egyptian music, and many played instruments like castanettes.
By the middle kingdom, the lyre had been introduced, as was the lute by the new kingdom. There was no differentiation between male and female instruments, women could play and sing according to their talents. In the later Dynasties, the market for male musicians was dwindling; people mostly wanted female performers. What is so unique about the ancient Egyptians is that the female dancers and singers were not viewed as prostitutes and women of ill repute as they were in other cultures of the time. Dancers and singers, especially including the women, were revered as talented and vital to Egyptian society.
The manufacture of mats, and baskets was also woman’s job. These tasks were performed at the home by the mother and wife. She made enough to supply her family’s needs, and extra could be used for bartering at the market; an opportunity for a woman to asset her independence. Weaving was not just a domestic concern. Excavations have shown workshops attached to large households. Inside women took part in the process of weaving, from the first to the final stages of production. Lists of indentured servants have been found, the names on them of a non-Egyptian origin. These servants were employed at these workhouses.
They were coveted assets, their foreign styles and skills added a bit of glamour to the work. Women were also largely involved in the process of bread baking and beer brewing. Just like textiles, the wealthy passed these tasks onto hired workers. Bread baking and beer brewing were even larger industries than textiles though. Bread and Beer were needed by both the temples for their daily offerings and by the government to supply the great feasts put on by the pharaoh and the other powerful leaders. In reliefs, huge workshops are shown attached to temples and government buildings.
These picture showed only women engaged in the more mundane and simple stages of production like grinding and sifting. They were not limited to these jobs; some women worked alongside of men as they mashed bread and mixed it with water to make the beer. The Pharonic government was involved in many major productions. For these jobs, citizens were drafted into work; women were eligible for these positions. The majority of them were called upon to be weavers of the baskets, ropes, and mats important to the project, but there were other jobs too.
Local rulers were called upon to draft these women for the work, in return for their services; the women would receive room, board, and clothing. These lodges needed to be staffed and it was women who were summoned to do so. Barbara Waterson wrote in her book Women in Ancient Egypt, “No matter how successful a woman was in the female priesthood or as a midwife, mourner, dancer, or musician, it is a depressing thought that these female professions were not as important or influential as those in the civil and public service, none of which was open to women.
As far as a woman’s professional ambitions were concerned, it is a uncomfortable fact that no woman could aspire to be a king’s scribe, and army general, a governor of a city or a province, or an ambassador to foreign lands…The scope of her ambitions was strictly limited to those professions deemed suitable for women. ” She is right in stating that women were subjugated. It is true that they were not afforded the same rights and jobs as the men. However, her statement is too revisionist. There was no other way of life for them to look at and dream of. They lived in relative harmony with their society.
Even if they were beneath men, women were seen as vital. They were just as necessary to the survival of the Egyptian people and their culture as men. However, it is as Waterson wrote, “uncomfortable”. Relativism only can go so far, and women were denied the ability to exist as deserved equals to men. The question of women in ancient Egypt is a confusing one. They were not abused or oppressed, nor were they looked at as unimportant. Egyptian women were looked at differently than men; their role was that of the nurturer and the caregiver, the bearer of a family’s future.
They were just as important to the society as the men. Ancient Egypt was a very complex world, and just as complex was the role that women played in its society. They were not free, but they also were not enslaved. They were vital, but only in terms of their husbands and their children. Egypt offered women a far more free life than the rest of the ancient world. In the end, women played a secondary role to men putting their desires for achievement aside so their husband could be king.
