Essay 1: The Lifetime of a Woman
For a young girl in China during Neo-Confucianism, life was heavily entwined with subservience to men. Before birth, families would perform rituals to seek the birth of a boy rather than a girl. A girl’s name also was not entered in her family’s temple, while all of the men were listed (Hughes 175). Once she was around the age of 5-6 years old, she would be expected to have her feet bound, a painful process that permanently disfigured her feet and physically handicapped her movement. If her feet were not bound at an early age, they would grow too large, and not be able to be shaped into the perfect size. During this, she would also be taught about “The Seven Feminine Virtues,” and the obediences and virtues. She would be expected to respect her father above all else, then her husband, and then her sons, once married. A young girl in ancient China would be treated as far inferior to a brother, and could be sold if the family were in need of money.

The transition from early girlhood to marriage was often too quick- many ancient cultures, such as early Islam, had girls married before they entered double-digits of age, with the wife of Muhammad being married at only 6 years old, and the marriage consummated at 9 years old. This negated much of the difference between prepubescence and pre-marriage life. In The Penelopiad, there is no specific age of marriage for Penelope, but she says to picture her, “as a clever but not overly beautiful girl of marriageable age, let’s say fifteen,” which is still a young girl (Atwood, 40). Marriage was often secured at a very young age to ensure a proper match and a decent benefit for both families. A young woman unmarried would likely be poor, and not have a politically made match for her, but would still be expected to be married quickly.

For a woman married in Mesopotamia, however, she would have a fair amount of laws imposed upon her, especially through Hammurabi’s Code. A woman did not have many ways to move up the social ladder, but could be present in a job as a musician or artist, or in a temple as a priestess, as we read in the “Women in Mesopotamia” excerpt. This would be able to get her out of the control of a husband, but was not always a viable option. A wife, however, was not able to maintain these jobs. Her role was complete subservience to her husband, and under Hammurabi, her devotion was to be absolute. Law #132 says that if a woman is accused of an affair, though not found with him, “she shall jump into the river for her husband,” in order to prove her faithfulness. Mesopotamia had some grounds for leaving a husband, but this meant going back to the father’s house. Women in early Mesopotamia were allowed some freedoms, like going to markets, trading, buying, and selling, and they were also allowed to take care of legal matters if their husband was absent from the house. Ultimately, a married woman under Hammurabi’s rule in Mesopotamia was first and foremost loyal to her husband and was his property.

A widow in India was to have the same loyalty and faithfulness to her deceased husband as if he were alive. Similar in some ways to Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, India had the Laws of Manu. These laws however focused primarily on women and their legal rights and social customs. One such law, #161, states that if a widow were to follow her desire to have more children despite her husband being dead, and take a new husband, she would lose her place in heaven. A widow in India may adopt a son, however, though preferably from her husband’s family, such as a nephew (Hughes 51). Luckily, the practice of sati, or ritual suicide, upon her husband’s death, was not expected and happened infrequently, and a widow was more than happy to live out the rest of her natural life.

Women in ancient cultures were often bound to men, and from a young age, were brought up to serve men. However, not all women had to be associated with men. Buddhist nuns were not bound to marriage, and though they had extra rules upon them than monks, they were a way for women to have some freedom. Nuns often were widows, members of poor families or orphans, or had already dedicated themselves to enlightenment. Becoming a nun did require the permission of the man who had control over her, so more often than not, nuns were women who were no longer useful to men (i.e., widows). Women in ancient Greece also had some leeway, as there were temples where women could serve goddesses, especially Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt. In ancient Greece, however, freedoms of women beyond men varied greatly across the various city-states. An Athenian woman was considered property, while a Spartan woman was able to earn a small living if her husband was away. Same-sex relationships were also less frowned upon between women, and Sappho was an excellent example of this. In Mesopotamia, same-sex relationships were presented in art in similar frequency to heterosexual relationships, showing a freedom of movement between women that was perhaps not recorded by men (Mark 2021).

While women were often under the thumb of men, there were ways in which they could escape and form bonds of their own, most of which are no longer recorded or never were recorded. Women’s history has been a secret for a long time because of this control by men, and it reminds me of the Afghani tradition of ‘landays’, short couplets of poetry that are often witty and sarcastic. They are rarely recorded, and it is mainly between the illiterate Pashtun women that these are passed around. Women have always persevered and found ways to flourish and thrive despite the rule of the men around them, and hopefully soon, no woman will have to find a work around.