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Women
and Gender in Ancient Rome:
In theory, under
Roman law, women moved from the authority of their fathers during
childhood to the authority of their husbands during marriage.
By the beginning of the 1st Century BCE, however, women in Rome
began to achieve greater freedom in practice. Roman men placed
a very high value on marriage, home, and the family, and this
made quite a difference to ancient society's treatment of women.
At no time in Rome's
history were women allowed to hold a political office. In the
early days of the Republic, women were not even allowed to make
suggestions. But by the beginning of the Empire many men were
seeking and following the advice of their wives. Even respectable
women managed to have a life beyond the home.
Outside of the lower
classes women did not work, but most did not want to do so.
In fact, "work" was seen as something to be done by
slaves. Nevertheless, women of all classes were demanding of
greater freedoms. There were numerous objections to freedoms
for Roman women - the Emperor Augustus introduced a series of
laws designed to promote "traditional" Roman values.
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