Gender Roles In Medea

At the time Euripides wrote Medea, ancient Greece was a patriarchal society, where men were the primary authority figures in the home. While men ruled the society, women had little or no rights. In a social stratification, women were treated at the weaker hierarchy level which caused them to suffer from low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence. Men and women are defined by their gender identity which determined their social roles. This character Medea was facing an impossible conflict, and she refuses to be confined to a strict social stereotype for ancient Greek women.
A warrior during these times was the portrait of a male’s identity whereas the women’s role was to rear the children and cook for the men. Medea proved herself to be a …show more content…
Euripides recognizes the injustice of gender roles in his time and he refuses to blame the external circumstances for all manifestations of evil intentions that men brought against themselves. It states that gender social stratification refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy specifically between men having a higher status than women. Men and women were considered to have unequal power and prestige because of their sex. Euripides speaks on the many injustices suffered by women in ancient Greece, especially the exploiting of their public lives. Men were free to divorce women whenever and however they pleased. Medea was one of the few women who sought revenge for the harsh treatment and humiliation she had endured at the hands of her husband. Women suffered from the inability to have control over their own futures. They depended on their husbands for all the physiological needs that helped them to survive. The course of revenge Medea pursues in the play depicts the mythical answer to a hypothetical question, what would happen if women were pushed to a certain limit to abuse the abuser or betray and avenge the wretchedness of men for their evil