Assignment 3 – “Egyptian Women”
NMC101H1
Instructor: Prof. K. Goebs
TA: Aleksandra Ksiezak
Parham Oghabi #999506413
November 22nd, 2014
Living in the twenty-first century and still witnessing gender inequality across the world is a major issue and concern during our period. Consequently, it is fascinating to try to discover the complex development of gender inequality over three thousand years before the beginning of the Common Era by learning how ancient Egyptian women were treated and their status in society.
The role of women in ancient Egypt has many facets, such as a mother who is clearly valued in society as we can see from the Instructions to Ani and Ptahhotep (AEL I, 69). Women were treated better than others in neighboring …show more content…
The religious function of this title was the stimulation of god’s procreative urge thus ensuring fertility of land and cyclical repetition of creation. (Van de Miroop, 2011: 275) ii. This emphasizes the main role of women in ancient Egypt, which is fertility.
b) Female representations via art (specifically paintings and statues)
i. Status and role were expressed through color, size, and pose. ii. Women were painted yellow, since their role was to stay indoors and were paler than men, while men were painted reddish-brown. (Van de Miroop, 2011: 42) iii. Women were shown with legs closed, which mean being passive, and physically smaller than men. Men were shown striding, being active, and their larger size placed emphasis on their superiority over women. The main figure was larger than secondary figures (Robins, 2007: 360). iv. Some statues show women in childbearing age to stress their main role of reproduction.
v. Most evidences are made by men due to lack of female artists.
c) Focus of art on the reproductive ability of women
i. Women were usually shown with breasts, narrow hips, and the pubic triangle to emphasize fertility (Robins, 2001: 511). ii. Evidences that being infertile was a cause of divorce and women were expected to have children, especially
NMC101H1
Instructor: Prof. K. Goebs
TA: Aleksandra Ksiezak
Parham Oghabi #999506413
November 22nd, 2014
Living in the twenty-first century and still witnessing gender inequality across the world is a major issue and concern during our period. Consequently, it is fascinating to try to discover the complex development of gender inequality over three thousand years before the beginning of the Common Era by learning how ancient Egyptian women were treated and their status in society.
The role of women in ancient Egypt has many facets, such as a mother who is clearly valued in society as we can see from the Instructions to Ani and Ptahhotep (AEL I, 69). Women were treated better than others in neighboring …show more content…
The religious function of this title was the stimulation of god’s procreative urge thus ensuring fertility of land and cyclical repetition of creation. (Van de Miroop, 2011: 275) ii. This emphasizes the main role of women in ancient Egypt, which is fertility.
b) Female representations via art (specifically paintings and statues)
i. Status and role were expressed through color, size, and pose. ii. Women were painted yellow, since their role was to stay indoors and were paler than men, while men were painted reddish-brown. (Van de Miroop, 2011: 42) iii. Women were shown with legs closed, which mean being passive, and physically smaller than men. Men were shown striding, being active, and their larger size placed emphasis on their superiority over women. The main figure was larger than secondary figures (Robins, 2007: 360). iv. Some statues show women in childbearing age to stress their main role of reproduction.
v. Most evidences are made by men due to lack of female artists.
c) Focus of art on the reproductive ability of women
i. Women were usually shown with breasts, narrow hips, and the pubic triangle to emphasize fertility (Robins, 2001: 511). ii. Evidences that being infertile was a cause of divorce and women were expected to have children, especially