Role of Women in Family in Ancient Rome
There have been a lot of discussions about the role of women in Ancient Rome. They had many different roles in many different activities or institutions but these were never clear because no ancient journals or personal diaries written by Roman women were uncovered, so it is not known what their hopes and dreams were, or if they had any. Although in ancient times, there was a men hegamony, Romen women played an important role in family structure. Almost everything about Roman women is a mystery.
When looking at the sources for ancient Roman women, we quickly figure out that most of them were dealing with aristocracy. Men from upper class always had received the best educaton and they obtained a role with high reputation. Because of these Roman women had a lot of spare time and in this time period they reflected theirselves on the world and wrote about it. Female population didn't only consist of aristocratic women and upper levels of Roman Society, but it is parts of their lives that we have to look at. Evidence for what the poorer women suffered during the Roman Republic and the Empire is very divided into pieces, however, women of all economic levels shared one common role and responsibility, no matter the social position they were in: that of child bearer.
Women, or more correctly, girls, usually got married by the age they were twelve. In our modern world, this seems disreputable, shameful. Apart from all these things, how can the parents give permission to their daughter to start up a new family, maybe a new life? Of course, we have to take those days' circumstances into consideration. Life expectancy was very different in ancient Rome compared with today. There would be a little amount of people who lived long died of old age but the majority of the society went into the graves by the time they reached their twenties or thirties. Girls married in early age and they made kids and often they died in...