Roman Women Dbq Analysis

Rome was a influential civilization that encompassed the center of the Italian Peninsula.In 509 BCE, after overthrowing their Etruscan conquerors, the civilization established itself as a republic. This was a form of government that was designed to allow citizens to directly partake in the government. While this system gave many citizens representation in government, it strictly excluded females.Since Ancient Roman women were deemed too weak to vote, Ancient Roman men had demeaning expectations for the behavior of women including they they are dissolute and they can only be caretakers.
A demeaning expectation that Roman men had of women is that they tend to be attracted to sinful ideas. For instance, in document 1,Seneca, a male patrician, describes how his mother, “unlike so many- never succumbed to immortality, the worst evil of the century... the bad example of lesser women…did not lead you stray from the old-fashioned strict upbringing you received at home” In other words, Seneca is complimenting his mother because she doesn’t do things that other women typically do. By describing how other women have fallen to “the worst evil of the century” and describing …show more content…
Furthermore, since Seneca is a patrician make, a highly influential role in Roman society, it is safe to say that many Roman men usually think that most women want to behave badly.Secondly, in document 7, Tacitus, a Roman senator, talks about how “the senate passed severe provisions to repress women’s dissoluteness.” This quote explicitly states that the Roman government thought that women had such a tendency towards immoral behavior that they needed to be controlled by law. Since women had no part in government, it was probably men came to this conclusion. Therefore, it can be said that men