The Egyptian Family

The Egyptians highly valued marriage and family. The basic family  unit was the nuclear family of father, mother, and children. Households  often included unmarried or widowed female relatives. The family supported these women, and in return gained extra hands for childcare  and housework.  Couples wanted to have as many healthy children as possible. If  a married couple was unable to have children, they often divorced.  

Childless couples sometimes adopted children. Women had a great deal of freedom, independence, and status.  Unlike women of most ancient societies, they could control or rent  property, inherit wealth, own slaves, leave property to their children  (or decide not to), take legal cases to court on their own, operate businesses, work outside the home, and live alone without a male guardian.  Their lives were not easy, though. Girls were typically married by  age 12 to 14, as soon as they could have children.

Many babies died  in infancy, so it was important to make the most of the years when a  woman could give birth. Marriage was an agreement between a man and a woman to live  together and have children. There was no official ceremony. There were  divorces, separations, and remarriages. Adultery (having a relationship with someone other than your husband or wife) was punished  harshly, especially in women. Polygamy (a man taking multiple wives)  was accepted, but only wealthy men were able to have multiple wives.

 Polygamy was too expensive for the average working man. A married woman was called “mistress of the house.” She was  responsible for child care, cooking, carrying water, grinding grain, baking bread, brewing beer, spinning thread and weaving cloth, making  and repairing clothing, and tending the shrines of domestic gods and  goddesses. Wealthy women supervised many servants. Pregnancy and childbirth were extremely dangerous for both  mother and baby.

 Doctors could offer little help. Pregnant women  recited magical spells and prayers, made offerings to Bes, Taweret, and  Bastet, and wore protective charms. A woman gave birth in a squatting  or kneeling position, balanced over a platform. A midwife (a person  who is trained to help women give birth) stood by to help. Afterwards,  the woman and her child had to leave home for several days for purification in a special “birth tent.”