Many readers and historians refer Athens and Sparta as the two leading city-states of Greek Civilization. It was a period of time where empires were slowly coming into the ancient world. Athens and Sparta were growing and flourishing. Ancient Greece was rising. As these two city-states grew, so did the ideas on how they should lead and run their city-state, which lead to the two societies sharing and disagreeing on the same ideas or coming up with different ideas. There were many similarities and differences between the city-states of Sparta and Athens that prospered from 600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E. As both of these societies shared the idea of what its women’s roles were and their central task in life, at the same time Athens believed a different
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Athenian woman’s main function in life was to manage domestic affairs and to produce sons. Spartan woman also had the same expectations as they were told they needed to reproduce warrior men that are ready for war. It even went so far that in order to strengthen for child-bearing, girls were encouraged to take part in sporting events in Sparta. Spartan and Athenian woman were seen as breeding machines. Seeing as woman are considered as breeding machines and that their only reason in life was so that they could produce more men, it is shown both Athens and Sparta believed that men were more superior than woman as woman were seen as having no other point in life than to reproduce, and to add on to that if you produced a female, there was no point in the child since she could not go to war or be a leader that would help to the rising of its city state. The reason as to why woman were told they needed to produce sons constantly was that if they produced sons, the city-states would potentially gain more leaders and they would benefit from it. The city could grow more and more and they would gain new potential emperors, soldiers, bureaucrats, and so forth. Spartan woman were expected to produce sons that were warriors and ready for war. All of this reproduction was a method in order to rise as a city-state and to be number
Athenian woman’s main function in life was to manage domestic affairs and to produce sons. Spartan woman also had the same expectations as they were told they needed to reproduce warrior men that are ready for war. It even went so far that in order to strengthen for child-bearing, girls were encouraged to take part in sporting events in Sparta. Spartan and Athenian woman were seen as breeding machines. Seeing as woman are considered as breeding machines and that their only reason in life was so that they could produce more men, it is shown both Athens and Sparta believed that men were more superior than woman as woman were seen as having no other point in life than to reproduce, and to add on to that if you produced a female, there was no point in the child since she could not go to war or be a leader that would help to the rising of its city state. The reason as to why woman were told they needed to produce sons constantly was that if they produced sons, the city-states would potentially gain more leaders and they would benefit from it. The city could grow more and more and they would gain new potential emperors, soldiers, bureaucrats, and so forth. Spartan woman were expected to produce sons that were warriors and ready for war. All of this reproduction was a method in order to rise as a city-state and to be number