Gender, Power, and Stratification in Ancient Greek Society

Introduction: Patriarchy and Social Stratification in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek society was highly stratified in terms of gender, class, and ethnicity. These stratifications had tremendous implications for how power was distributed and expressed. One of the most notable power differentials — and likely the most severe and immutable — was the difference in status between males and females. Females were categorically prohibited from altering their own status or role, ensuring the perpetuation of patriarchy. Women navigated this patriarchal system by developing spheres of power and influence in two realms in particular: the domestic and the religious.

Class Distinctions and the Status of Elite Women

Elite women had access to systems of power that lower-class women did not. So bereft of power were the women of the lower classes that their lives were not deemed worthy of observation or analysis by Greek historians, scholars, writers, or philosophers. Elite women, on the other hand, received some treatment across these historiographies. Particularly in Sparta, elite women could possess enough status to influence public discourse, as Sophocles demonstrates in plays such as Antigone. Family reputation had a strong bearing on the relative status of a woman, but generally a Spartan female of the elite class enjoyed tacit — though not explicit — property rights: even though she could not enjoy the full privileges of title and deed or political empowerment, she had some localized control over her property and its management (Pomeroy, 2002).

The Female Body: Weakness, Impurity, and Subordination

Beliefs about the lowly status of women in Greek society can be traced to the high value placed on physical strength and the perception of female weakness. The highest pinnacle of a woman's strength was deemed to be her ability to produce a healthy male offspring and survive the ordeal — perhaps to do it again (Xenophon, 4th cent. BCE). Male strength on the battlefield was weighted highly, particularly in ancient Sparta. Excluding women from participation in the military precluded half of all Greeks from demonstrating their prowess. Yet women were encouraged to develop their athletic strength so that their bodies would be suitable for childbirth: "the female sex ought to take bodily exercise no less than the male" (Xenophon).

Whereas men possessed an idealized body, the female body was considered inferior and subordinate. In Greek myth, the female body was linked closely with death because it symbolizes the cycle of birth and death (Clark, 2009). Aristotle went so far as to claim that women were "defective men" (cited in Clark, 2009). Women were characterized as impure, soft, and weak. It would have been unthinkable for a man to be overshadowed by a creature deemed weak — let alone one considered spiritually sullied.

Conclusion: Fear, Control, and the Confinement of Women

The lowly status of women in everyday life is reflected at almost every level of Greek society. Greek male dominance is evident in every sphere of life, but the hierarchies do not end with gender. Greek social stratification was endemic to the culture, creating strict lines between "us" and "them," between the civilized and the barbarian. Ultimately, the confinement of women to the domestic and profane domains indicates a profound fear of male weakness.