Ancient Roman Women

Women were not treated very well in ancient societies, being looked down upon and seen as those who are there just to watch the children and cook for the family. The women were expected to do whatever their husband told them and if they didn’t, they’d be seen as bad wives. This view was prompted and promoted by many different things There were major figures like Aristotle who preached this idea and people were taught that women were less than men.. Women in the ancient societies of Greece, Rome, India, and China were treated poorly because they were seen as unsophisticated and inferior to men. Although some women in India were able to escape the mistreatment by looking to Buddhism, most continued to face this issue that revolved around Patriarchy.
The Roman women would be forced to pay extra taxes just because they were female. The woman tried to get these laws repealed, but someone named Cato who was speaking in favor of these laws said, “our ancestors did not want females to conduct any, not even personal, business without a guardian as their agent. Our ancestors wanted them to be under the control of their fathers, brothers or husbands.” 6 Men were taught that women were not equal to them and that they were not supposed to live on their own. It was this preconceived idea that kept pushing women down. They were limited due to these beliefs and we see that Cato was following in the steps of those before him, so by nature, he believed that making women lesser than men was the right move to make. Not all men believed this though. Following Cato’s claim, Lucius Valerius said, “Since women have lived the most moral lives for years without it, what ultimately is the danger that they would rush into extravagant luxury once the law has been repealed?” 7 Not all of the men felt that women should be limited and some even tried to help them battle this oppression. Lucius Valerius tried to help the women, but there were still large amounts of men that tried to keep women from having any type of power over them. These laws were made to take the money from the women, specifically those that made a lot of money, so this would
Some women would become Buddhist nuns so that they could have more independence and power than other Indian women. Psalms of the Sisters is a collection of writings from these Buddhist nuns. One woman states, “O woman well set free! How free am I, how thoroughly free from kitchen drudgery! Me stained and squalid ‘mong my cooking-pots my brutal husband ranked as even less than the sunshades he sits and weaves away.” 10 We can see how relieved this woman is now that she is a nun. She was able to escape her old restricted lifestyle and could express herself freely. Other women were not as lucky as these Buddhist nuns and had to continue to face this oppression from