Since the early days of involving women in the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America have made considerable progress towards equality of the both genders. Although it is not completely successful yet but lots people in nowadays says that it has now finally balanced the sense of equality between the two gender in our society, women are slowly treated the same as men. Something that we cannot deny is, women are getting more and more important compare with men today, some of them even hold the important position in an organization. Vigdis Finnbogadottir, President of Iceland, she is not only the 1st woman president in Europe and longest-serving female political ruler in the world but also the 1st one elected directly by the people in the world, it shown that the acceptance of women in the society is getting more attention and highlighted, the equality between two genders is also getting closer and closer. But how many people do really know about the status of women compare to men in ancient time?
From the earliest years of ancient times, a woman was always in second place, they never been putting in the 1st place or giving any considerable priority in any field. Since early historical times, women have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil. Most of them had been treating bad all the time and suffer from the contempt vision. The most worst is the early Roman law it described the women as children that forever inferior to the men. Infanticide was an acceptable practice in the ancient times, and females were the ones who usually disposed of since they didn't have the same worth as males. This is all the rage and cannot be forgiven, well this is the fact and no action been taken to protect the right of the females babies. Males babies were just like gold nuggets but females babies not. Any newborns that were deemed unacceptable were either left out for vultures and wild animals to carry away, or sent to be slaves. Infanticide is very normal at that time, but who care? No people appreciate or concerned about this issue. In the result, the equality of both genders is getting worst.
Man have stronger body physical strength compare to women, thus a woman of these times could not be entrusted to handle her own private affairs. There is a belief where a guy can always handle things better than woman, and this is also the natural order of mankind and also a product of the historical domination of women by men. Women were seen mainly as baby-carriers and homemakers, the main job of a woman in ancient was to bear sons and serve their husband, they are not allowed to work or taking any important position in the society, as their ability was being looking down. Men appear to have dominated medieval history. In here, it shown that in ancient time women were less important and less valued compare to men.
The status of a woman was defined by men. In ancient, marriage was like a protection for woman, but when a woman’s husband passed away, they cannot marry again, they have to remain as a widow in the rest of their life. But to the man, they can marry as many times as they want even though their wife still alive, not only that, most of them have more than one wife at a time. They responsibility is to continue the family line In the marriage under the feudal ethical code, it is not only about the unfairness but also the culture of that time. Women were suffers from it, but there is no ways for them to fights for their right. They have to just follow the old minded trend.
Anyhow, not every ancient is the same. Unlike the position of women in most other ancient civilizations, including Greece, scholars believe that in the ancient of India, the women enjoyed the equal status in all fields of life, during the early Vedic period. According to the Rigvedic verses suggest that the women were married at a mature age, and unlike others, they are free to choose their husband. Besides, works by ancient Indian grammarians suggest that the women were educated at that time.
Shares, Vivian Loy, Benny Chai
