Women's Roles In The Old Kingdom Essay

Beginning in the Old Kingdom, women were seen as the subordinate of the two sexes during Ancient Egyptian Society. Moving through to the Middle and New Kingdoms, it is clear that their role in society was diminished heavily. This essay is primarily focussed on the roles of elite and non-elite females in Ancient Egyptian society, and how through time these roles changed – often for the worst. The increased importance placed on administrative titles that some elite women held during the Old Kingdom made them unobtainable for the less well educated females and literate men took over. Women’s role in the temple cult was reduced from priestess positions in the Old Kingdom to musicians in the Middle and New Kingdoms as males took over the role that now made up part of the state bureaucracy – something that women had no place in. Furthermore, non-elite women also had their positions in …show more content…
Elite women had more prospects than those in the lower classes, being able to obtain some administrative titles outside of the state bureaucracy in the temple ritual and in the service of royal women, but these roles were severely diminished after the end of the Old Kingdom and ceased to exist in the New Kingdom. The role of women was diminished largely to roles held in the Old Kingdom becoming more important to society and men then taking these roles over. Evidence suggests that women were seen as the subordinate sex as they were never in charge of males, and those that were overseers of women are often accompanied by a man. Although women were by no means the dominant sex in Egyptian society, they still played a key part in all Egyptian life in the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, be it in the worship of a god or the everyday tasks such as weaving that allowed society to continue from one day to the