Women’s Education, Knowledge and Competence in Ancient Greece

Lada Stevanović

doi:10.2298/FID2301043S

Authors

Lada Stevanović Institute of Ethnography, SASA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2301043S

Keywords:

women, education, knowledge, competence, private domain, public domain, death rituals

Abstract

The paper deals with women’s education in Ancient Greece. In ancient times, women were dominated by men throughout the Greek world, while their roles and competence were strictly defined (albeit differently across various city-states). Although not all women were deprived of education, their education was almost never organized by the city-state. Women’s knowledge and voice were never welcome in the public domain. However, the picture of women’s education, knowledge and competences is not one-dimensional and it would be wrong to claim that those did not exist. Foreign women sometimes had more freedom of education and free communication with men than Greek citizens’ wives (especially in Athens); education was also available for girls from rich families; some city-states other than Athens were less restrictive towards their women.
The other aspect of the issue was the fact that there was some knowledge available to women, and in some professions, women did not appear as an exception, but rather as a rule. Such was the case of midwives, women physicians and herbal specialists/pharmacists. Their prominent role in the private domain did not only involve care of home and closest kin, but also rituals, and this should be considered an important aspect of women’s competence. However, researching women’s education and knowledge in antiquity is a difficult task, because veils of silence were cast over women’s voices in ancient times, including those that attempted to break through the barriers of their age.

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