Women's lives in Ancient Egypt

Wente was dead.  Nebet sat in mourning outside of her house, face smeared with mud, contemplating the undulations of the women hired to mourn.  Her husband was at the embalmer's awaiting a reasonably-priced procedure, and soon his body would be carried to the family sepulcher to step forward into his second, better part of existence.  Nebet was left behind, her children too.  Next to her stepped her friend Khenemet, who was lawyer to the family.  "Woeful day. Your lot has fallen to you, Nebet.  Your third of Wente's possessions and land."

Nebet's lot would not have been so bad, compared to that of her contemporaries elsewhere. For many centuries, the women of ancient Egypt were luckier than most of the women in the world.  In the Greek civilization that existed parallel to their own, women lacked many of the rights granted to Egyptian women.  For example, instead of needing an older brother or father or son to settle legal affairs as in Greece, Egyptian women had equal rights in the law.  They could own, inherit and sell property, begin lawsuits, and freely divorce their husbands. 

Some speculate that this freedom had to do with a different order to society. Deeply ingrained beliefs held that the Phaorah was the embodiment and personification of Egypt, and that every man and woman who lived in Egypt was therefore equal in governmental relationship to the Pharoah.  In Greece, the central unit of social organization was the family rather than the individual, making the "man of the house" the spokesperson for all that went on in the house.  Divorce especially highlights the difference between these cultures. 

Marriage in Egypt was a simple matter of a man and woman taking up residency together. If a woman in Egypt wished to divorce her husband, she simply moved back to her parent's home, and her dowry was returned to her.  In ancient Greece, a woman had to convince her father or another male official that the divorce was worthy.  Often, if a woman's father saw that a marriage was unhappy, as long as the woman bore no child she could move back into her father's house. Both of these steps could be easily halted by the husband, however, who could simply restrict his wife's movements to the house itself.

Legal equality was joined by a certain social equality too.  Ancient Egyptian women were in charge of the household.  Certain other occupations were available to them as well, such as professional mourner or fabric worker, but for the most part the social role given to women was that of mother and maintainer of the family. 

This was not an easy task, however. All of the food preparation fell to the woman, from growing or trading for a bag of grain to grinding it on stone handmills, to baking it.  Washing linens and keeping the family "nefer" or pure and beautiful was also part of the woman's job, as well as birthing and caring for the children. 

Ancient Egypt did not have a coin-based economy but rather a barter one; therefore, based on their housekeeping ability, women could trade what they grew in the kitchen garden or made by hand for other things they needed. In many ways, despite the greater freedom of movement that Egyptian men had to work and travel, women were the vital glue that kept Egyptian society clean, fed and clothed. 

Although women were equal in the eyes of the law, they were limited in their earning ability outside of this main occupation.  Widowed women could continue to carry on their husbands' households, but few of the goods that their husbands' jobs would bring in would be available to them.  Often, if a widow could not find a way to be self-sufficient, the only recourse was remarriage or living on a relative's kindness. 

Women were not discouraged from finding other occupations, although the reality of life with limited birth control meant that women were most often mothers.  Poor women worked in the fields or in workshops run by rich estates.  Women also worked in the textile industry, and were fundamental to the harvest of flax, its spinning into thread, and weaving into the long, pale pieces of linen cloth worn by men and women alike. Noblewomen could run their family estates in a slightly enlarged job description of "woman of the house." 

More rarely, women could become doctors;  historical records show that one of the first female physicians came from Egypt.  Women were as literate as men, meaning that only a small percentage of society knew how to read, but documents show that women also became scribes, administrators, and, of course, Queens.  Legally, women were not given the right to rule Egypt without being married to a King, but at least six women bent the rules to preside over Egypt in their own right - most notably Nefertiti, Cleopatra, and Hatshepsut. 

Ancient Egyptian queens ruled in spite of the religious injunction that only men inherited the god-given power to rule Egypt.  Often coming to power by regency over a weaker king, these queens managed to take the reins and run with them.  Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as regent to her son Thutmose III, Nefertiti through the great love of her husband Akhenaten who gave her unprecedented governmental power, and Cleopatra through regency over her child-husband Ptolemy XIII, who was only twelve when they married. Hatshepsut, the strongest of these queens, often wore the wigged beard that was symbolic of the ruler in order to more closely resemble a male pharoah.  With her beard or without it, Hatshepsut successfully ruled Egypt for twenty long years before she was deposed by her son.

Nebet nodded.  The other two thirds would go to her son and daughter respectively. They were still of an age to have Nebet managing their affairs, however, and content to leave things as they were.  "We shall continue the garden, although now I must take on a slave for the herd."  Wente had been a shepherd.  Their son would follow in his footsteps someday, but not yet.

"And so it is," Khenemet said.  He did not ask about another marriage, not on a day of mourning, but it would solve much for Nebet. Wente had a brother; perhaps he could be persuaded to care for his sister-in-law.  The wailing of the women came nearer again and they both fell silent, watching as Wente was properly ushered to the next world.

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About The Author

Achariya Rezak

Last three pieces by this author:

Interview with a Metaverse creator: AvaGardner Kungler | Animals of Ancient Egypt | Men’s Fashion in Ancient Egypt

Achariya Rezak is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia, specializing in the field of Reading Education.  Her concentration is in informal education in online spaces, and more specifically how fan culture informs the ways in which fans think and feel about literacy.  Her dissertation research focuses upon the…