Εργασίες και δραστηριότητες γυναικών στην κλασική Αθήνα
Part of : Επετηρίς του Κέντρου Ερεύνης της Ιστορίας του Ελληνικού Δικαίου ; No.42, 2010, pages 43-65
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43-65
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Works and activities of women in Classical Athens
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Source’s information about women’s activities in classical Athens usually refers to the “chores within the house” and is focused to their established household duties.There are, nonetheless, some sources, although few, which offer information about the “out of the house” activities of the women, which cover a very wide range of works. So, we can attend, through these sources, a number of women who used to hang out at the market in order to sell fruit and vegetables, peas, beans, eggs, honey. Some were producers and sellers at the same time. Meanwhile, there were women who processed the wool and created textiles, used to sell threads or worked at clothes handicrafts. There are very often referred women who prerared and then used to sell bread. Some of these bakers were actually demonstrating noticeable dynamism for the assertion of their rights and they were hesitating to lodge charges in case of damage of their goods. Some others used to run taverns and motels, other used to work as nannies or midwives, while other worked out of the city’s boundaries, in the farms, as grape pickers. There were also laundresses, hairdressers, confectioners, perfume sellers, goldsmith et al.Financial activities of women are of particular interest, since they seem to manage big amounts, forcefully assert the assets belonging to them and establish their financial rights, while it seems that the bank sector was a preferential employment sector for some women, who intimately knew it and had a dynamic presence thereat.The sources’ research highlights a wide range of works of the female population of classical Athens. It is obvious that the Athenian women had entered, quietly and silently, in most working sectors and had actually reversed most of the restrictions imposed by the society and the law.
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