Women and the Household
The emergence of
slavery1 in the city-state on a large scale gave women new and bigger responsibilities
for the household (oikos, oikia), especially rich women, whose lives were especially circumscribed by
the responsibility of managing their large households. As
partners in the
maintenance of the family with their husbands2, who spent their time outside farming, participating in politics, and meeting
their male friends, wives were entrusted with the management of the household (
oikonomia
3, whence our word
“economics”). They were expected to
raise the children,4, supervise the preservation and preparation of food, keep the family's financial
accounts,
weave cloth to make clothing,5, direct the work of the household slaves, and nurse them when they were ill.
Households thus depended on women, whose work permitted the family to be economically
self-reliant and the male citizens to participate in the public life of the
polis .
