Marriage Of The Ptolemaic Period Of Egyptian Women And Economic Conditions

Scholars always have different views on the status of ancient-Egyptian women. According to the descriptions of the Classical writers, the ancient Egyptian women had much higher social status compared to the Greek women. These observations are often taken and used by modern feminists as paradigm and banners. With the time elapsing, more and more ancient Egyptian material, particularly on the women's property rights in marriage, is excavated and studied, so that it seems necessary to scrutinize once more those opinions which were held to be true in the past.As the lady of the house, the most important responsibility of the ancient Egyptian women was to give birth to offspring and to bring them up. Meanwhile, they also took charge of household affairs. On the one side, Women in ancient Egypt depended on their husbands economically, which made their role a subsidiary one in the family circumstances. On the other side, they had the responsibility of rearing the male successor for the next generation. The two-folder function of the women put them in a very delicate position both inside the family and in the society. Sons usually respected their mothers, and husbands fed and protected their wives, which just reflected that house wives were not in the condition of making their living independently. Marriage Settlements, based on this social situation, formed a restriction on male group in the society, contributing to the protection of the women from becoming desperate when marriages were disrupted.In the marriage contracts it is clearly formulated that husbands had obligations to support their wives, including presenting marriage gifts before the wedding, guaranteeing daily foods and clothes, paying compensation on divorce. Ancient Egyptian men must also promise the heritage rights for children of the marriage. These regulations were drafted to make sure that wives not only enjoyed acceptable accommodation during the marriage period, but also had means of living in the case of divorce. Above all, women in ancient Egypt had no independent economic basis since their main duty was to take care of their husbands and their children. The contracts, which were signed before the marriage, were to secure the economic benefits of the women, but they bound them in the state of dependence. In reality, the women in ancient Egypt had not equal status.