Women's Lives at Home and at Work
The character Medea's comment in Euripides' play1 named after her that
women2 were said to lead a safe life at
home reflected the expectation in Athenian society that women from the propertied
class would avoid frequent or close contact with men who were not members of their own
family or its circle of friends. Women of this socio-economic level were therefore
supposed to spend much of their time in their own home or the
home of women
friends3. There, women dressed and slept in
rooms set aside for them4, but these rooms usually opened onto a walled courtyard where the women could
walk in the open air, talk, supervise the
domestic chores of the family's
slaves5, and
interact with other
members of the household6 male and female. Here, in their territory as it were,
women would spin
wool7 for clothing while chatting with women friends who had come to visit,
play with their children8, and give their opinions on various matters to the men of the house as they
came and went. Poor women had little time for such activities because they, like their
husbands, sons, and brothers, had to leave their homes, often only a crowded rental
apartment, to find work. They often set up
small stalls9 to sell bread, vegetables, simple clothing, or trinkets.
Their husbands and sons sought jobs
as laborers in workshops or foundries or on
construction projects.10.
