The role of women in ancient Egypt

 It was  a social position varying over  the centuries and subject to the various nomes and epochs. Some women achieved lasting fame, while the majority served in positions related to their homes and families. Royal women and those of nonroyal status sel- dom had records attesting to their duties or rights, and in almost every case (with the exception of the queen- pharaohs) they were considered for the most part in terms of their relationships to the surrounding males. Even the mortuary stelae, the tablets erected for women as gravesite commemoratives, equated them normally with their husbands, fathers, or sons. In the tombs women were portrayed in secondary positions if they were shown at all. In some historical periods women were portrayed the same size as their husbands, but in most instances they were smaller and placed in a peripheral area.

The royal women were the best documented, but even they are only cursorily mentioned in dynastic records. In the nomes, however, many women, such as Princess NEBT, did maintain their own estates and hold high ranks personally or as regents for their minor sons. In times of building, for example, women were subject to the corvée, the service given to the pharaoh at pyramid or temple sites. Women went with the men to the building sites and did the cooking, weaving, or nursing. They received honors as a result.

Legally , the women of ancient Egypt were the equals of men, and they are mentioned frequently in regulations concerning the proper attitudes of officials. Some didactic literature warns young men against frivolous or flirtatious women, but there is also a text that admonishes young men to think about the travails and sufferings that their mothers endured for their sake. Women depicted in the mortuary reliefs and paintings are shown conducting the normal household tasks, although women of higher sta- tus no doubt had household servants to do these chores.

Women are presented in most tomb scenes as young and beautiful, whether they are the wives or mothers of the men buried there. Such idealization was part of the mortuary or funerary art and did not represent the actual age or physical condition of the women portrayed.

No women were recorded as having excelled in the various arts. No government positions were held by women, except as regents for the royal heirs or nome heirs, and even in the temples the roles of women were normally peripheral. The early priestesses were relegated to the role of songstresses or chantresses in the New Kingdom Period (1550–1070  B.C.E.). In the Eighteenth Dynasty, queens held the rank of “GOD’S WIFE OF AMUN,” a role that would evolve into a politically powerful role in later generations, restricted to princesses of the various dynasties.

At the same time, however, women bought and bartered items in the marketplace, sold real estate, over- saw doctor’s treatments, piloted boats, and served as court-appointed executrixes of estates. They normally married only with their consent, unless they were NOME heiresses or members of the royal families. They testified as valid witnesses in court, drew up wills, and filed for divorce. In a divorce proceeding, the woman kept her dowry and was usually awarded one-third of the joint property. In the Late Period (712–332  B.C.E.) couples made prenuptial agreements. Higher-ranked women were comparatively literate and quite equal to men before the law. Daughters received shares of all inheritances and maintained personal properties.