Women in ancient Egypt

Women in ancient Egypt had some special rights other women did not have in other comparable societies. They could own property and were, at court, legally equal to men. However, Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal society dominated by men. Only a few women are known to have important positions in administration, though there were female rulers and even female

Most women belonged to the peasantry and worked alongside their husbands. Women were known to manage farms or businesses in the absence of their husbands or sons. Among the upper classes of society, a woman usually did not work outside the home, and instead supervised the servants of the household and her children's education. An exception is the textile industry. Here women are well attested as weavers. A letter found at Lahun and dating around 1800 BC names six female weavers.[2]

In the

The purpose of marriage was to have more children and descendants of the family.[5]

In the New Kingdom, there was a saying that:

"Take a wife while you are young

That she make a son for you

She should care for you while you are youthful

It is proper to make people

Happy is the man whose people are many

He is saluted on account of his progeny."^[5]

It is true that some egalitarian relationships between husband and wife were implied in Egyptian depictions.

For example, in love songs, brother and sister carried the same significance as husband and wife. "Sn", the Egyptian word for "brother", also meant "peer", "mate", or "second". Thus, the love songs may be referring to the egalitarian relationship between husband and wife.^[6] The example for interbreeding among royalty was set by the gods since Osiris married his sister, Isis.

However, depictions usually show a husband and wife in an affectionate attitude with their children, so we assume most families were generally happy, but marriage was more realistic. The wife shared responsibilities and worked with her husband. Marriages in ancient Egypt were usually monogamous, but it also was not uncommon for a man of high economic status to have more than one wife. This was especially true if the man's first wife was unable to have children of her own. Although it was possible to divorce, it was very difficult. Marriages were usually arranged by parents, who chose appropriate partners for their children. Despite what the laws stated, it was suggested that women made more family decisions and controlled more of the home than usual. Women had control over most of their property, could serve as legal persons who brought cases to the court, and even worked in public. Husbands did not take total control over their wives property because women had a degree of independence in ancient Egypt. For example, from ca. 365 B.C, a new marriage contract was emerged which mainly protected women from divorce, placing more financial burdens on men.^[7]

The influence of queens and queen mothers was considered as a big reason for women's special rights in ancient Egypt compared to other societies at that time. Queens and queen mothers always had a great power since many pharaohs were very young when they succeeded the throne. For example, the great pharaoh Ahmose I in New Kingdom, always took advice from his mother, Ahhotep I, and his principal wife, Nefertari.^[5]

Although the women of ancient Egypt were viewed as one of the most independent groups of women, widowhood could result in suspicion due to the lack of male control. Widows also gained more legal freedom, being able to buy and sell land, making donations, and even making loans.^[8]

Pregnancy

There is much evidence of complex beliefs and practices in ancient Egypt related to the important role fertility played in society. If a woman was not fertile, her husband could potentially divorce her for not producing heirs. Religious beliefs included rules concerning purification, similar to other religions in the region. Women in Egypt were believed to be eliminating impure elements during menstruation, and were excused from work and could not enter the restricted rooms of temples while menstruating. Fertility rituals were used by couples desiring children. Contraception was permitted as well, and medical texts survive that refer to many contraceptive formulas (although the ingredients are often now difficult to identify). Some formulas, such as drinks made of celery base and beer, are dubious, but others show a basic knowledge of somewhat effective methods, such as a spermicide made of fermented acacia gum, which produces a sperm-killing lactic acid.^[9]

Once pregnant, the uterus was placed under the protection of a specific goddess,

When it was time for childbirth, the pregnant woman was assisted by midwives. She would be shaved, including her head. The midwives would support the woman during labor while she remained in a squatting position on a mat. On the corners of the mat were placed four bricks, believed to be the incarnation of four goddesses: Nut, the great goddess of the sky; Tefnut, the elder, the feminine polarity of the first couple; Aset the beautiful; and Nebet-Het, the excellent.^[11]

Women playing an official role at the highest levels

There are few preserved examples of women as high officials. Some women are known to have become Pharaohs. One example of a woman in a high state position is Nebet who became vizier in the Sixth Dynasty. The vizier was the highest state official, second only to the king.^[12]

Egyptian society of antiquity, like many other civilizations of the time, used religion as a foundation for society. This was how the throne of the power of the Pharaohs was justified, as anointed by the gods, and the holder of the throne had a divine right. Typically, in ancient societies power was transferred from one male to the next. Women gave birth to the heirs, signaling importance towards marriage, as well. The son inherited the power, and in cases where the king did not have a son, the throne was then inherited by the male members of the family further removed from the king, such as cousins or uncles. In this system, daughters did not automatically inherit power.

In Egyptian civilization, this obligation of passing power to a male successor was not without exceptions. Royal blood, a factor determined by divine legitimacy, was the unique criteria for access to the throne. However, the divine essence was transmitted to the royal spouse, as was the case with Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten.

Egyptians preferred to be governed by a woman with royal blood (being divine according to mythology) rather than by a man who did not have royal blood. Also, during crises of succession, there were women who took power. When this happened, the female Pharaoh adopted all of the masculine symbols of the throne. There even exist doubts, in some instances, about the sex of certain Pharaohs who could have been women.

During the

Many of the Great Royal Wives also played significant diplomatic and political roles:

• Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
• Amenhotep IV
• Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II

Elsewhere in the New Kingdom, the Great Wife was often invested with a divine role: "Wife of god", "Hand of god". Hatshepsut was the first Great wife (of Thutmose II) to receive this latter title.

For women holding office in the highest levels of the bureaucracy, one can cite Nebet, a

There was also the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, granted major spiritual power, but also a power restricted to Thebes.

"Royal harem"

There has been a modern trend to refer to the women's quarters of the Pharaoh's palace in Ancient Egypt as a harem.^[18]

The popular assumption that Pharaonic Egypt had a harem is however an anachronism; while the women and children of the pharaoh, including his mother, wives, and children, had their own living quarters with its own administration in the Palace of the Pharaoh, the royal women did not live isolated from contact with men or in seclusion from the rest of the court in the way associated with the term "harem".^[18]

The custom of referring to the women's quarters of the pharaoh's palace as a "harem" is therefore apocryphal, and has been used because of incorrect assumptions that Ancient Egypt was similar to later Islamic harem culture.^[18]

Women in ancient Egyptian literature

Gaston Maspero describes in Contes populaires (Popular Tales), there was the fatal misadventure of Bytaou, the humble farmhand at the home of his brother Anoupou. Seduced by the wife of his brother, he succumbs to the charm of her beauty. She does not hesitate to denounce him to Anoupou, lying and never ceasing until she obtains the ultimate punishment for Bytaou at the hands of Anoupou. But she is punished in turn; Anoupou discovers much later that he has been played for a fool by his wife, who he kills, and throws her body to the dogs.

It is important not to interpret this incorrectly: the rarely flattering portrayal of women in Egyptian literature does not reveal for nothing that women were despised. The Pharaoh was often given the same treatment by storytellers who presented the Pharaoh as a stubborn and whimsical character.

Men were invited to cherish their wives.

Romance was present in Egyptian literature, for example, in a papyrus at the Leyden Museum:

I took you for my wife when I was a young man. I was with you. Then I conquered all ranks, but I never abandoned you. I have never made your heart suffer. Here is what I have done when I was a young man and I exercised all the high functions of Pharaoh, Life, Health, Strength, I never abandoned you, saying to the contrary: "That it was by being with you!" [...] My perfumes, cakes and clothes, I did not bring them to another dwelling. [...] When you became ill, I made myself an official of health and did whatever was necessary. [...] When I joined Memphis, I asked for a holiday as Pharaoh, I went to the place where you dwell (your tomb) and I wept deeply. [...] I will not enter another house. [...] But, here are the sisters who are in the house, I did not go to any of them.^[19]

Women in ancient Egyptian art

Egyptian women were seldom depicted as ageing and wrinkled; there were standards to be met. The women were shown as slender and beautiful, partly so that they could take on that frame in the afterlife. Egyptian art was far from realistic. It shows how much the ancient Egyptians cared about how they were perceived. There were hardly any images of pregnant women or women's bodies after giving birth. The man, however, could be shown as athletic and engaging or old and experienced. These idealistic depictions would reflect the targeted image, such as the physically able king, or the tired king who works day and night for his people. People were depicted at the peak of their beauty and youth, in an attempt to remain so forever. However, in the

Divine image and religion

In the abundance of divinities in Egyptian mythology, there existed a large number of goddesses, as was also the case in Greece. By studying their symbolism one can learn the image that women had in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians. As with Greek divinities, many were related to one another, by blood or marriage, such as Isis and her sister Nephthys, both the respective wives of Osiris (the god of the dead) and of Set, themselves brothers.

Women and their image were most often associated with life and fertility. In the case of the goddess Isis, who was associated with many principles: as the wife of Osiris who was killed by his brother, she was connected to funeral rites. As a mother, she became the feminine protector, but above all the mother-creator, she who gives life. Through this goddess, the principles of life and death were closely linked. In effect, while she was associated with funeral rites, these rites were to prevent the deceased from submitting to a second death in the succeeding dimension, which explains among other things, the food found in abundance by archeologists in the tombs. On the other hand, life in its physical aspect meaningful only by death, because these principles are part of a movement of eternal new beginning that is then in a sense more spiritual, the movement of life, or eternal life. A symbol of the goddess is also the palm tree, the symbol of eternal life. She breathed the breath of eternal life to her dead husband.

The goddess represented the era's regard for women, because it was crucial to maintain the spirit in her image, it was this idea of eternal life and of maturity that Isis reflected, venerated as the Celestial Mother. It was in this role that Isis was arguably made the most important deity of Egyptian mythology. Her influence even extended to religions of different civilizations, where she would become identified under different names and where her cult grew, particularly in the Roman Empire.

The most influential goddesses were Isis, goddess of magic and mysticism, Hathor, goddess of nourishment and love, Bastet, goddess-protector of the home, and Sekhmet, goddess of wrath.

Priesthood

Women could become priests in Ancient Egypt. However, as was common in Ancient societies, there was no general rule for women's rights to become priests. Instead, the priesthood was different for each separate divinity depending on the local cult of each divinity. This meant that women could be accepted as priests for a specific divinity in one temple and not accepted in another, as was the case with men.

Priestess of Hathor

One of the most famed priesthoods for women in Ancient Egypt was the

In many of ancient Egypt's artistic approaches, we see women supporting or clasping their husband, maybe even protecting them. So in some sense, the woman could be the protector, probably associated with the concept of protective goddesses. Women mingled in society, we see evidence of that where peasant women were depicted helping with the harvest;^[23] townswomen are shown as professional musicians, dancers,^[24] members of temple staff and party guests.

So women weren't just traditional stay at home wives, but they contributed to society and sometimes even in untraditional ways. There are scenes of women in weaving workshops, and tomb inscriptions of women's professional involvement. Such titles could range from political to religious to funerary. Some titles inscribed on tombs were mainly honorific; to honor the women after they die. Some examples of titles are: Overseer of Female Physicians, Judge and Vizier, Director of the Dining Hall, and Overseer of Funerary Priests.^[25]

Religious positions weren't limited to noblewomen as some would think, in fact, we see evidence of priestesses of major goddesses bearing humble titles like tenant farmer. As history moves from the

When women in ancient Egypt are evoked, the first image that comes to mind for most is that of Cleopatra, or more precisely,

During the 1950s and 1960s, a number of

This passion for the queen is explained by the tumultuous life that she lived, full of intrigues, romances (her two most famous lovers being

As a sign of celebrity, this imagined Egypt has not only been the object of fantasies but has also been caricatured. The best-known of these caricatures today are those appearing in such media of popular culture as the

In a more general manner, this image of Egyptian women, forceful, behind a mysterious and magical veil, and exercising a seductive power, continues to this day, for example in the American series Stargate SG-1, or again in Luc Besson's film The Fifth Element (1997).

Fashion designers are also regularly inspired by the iconography of Egyptian women, who have become an esthetic point of reference.

Royal women (in chronological order)

• First dynasty of Egypt
  • Den
• Third dynasty of Egypt
  • Djefatnebti, wife of Huni
• Fourth dynasty of Egypt
  • Meresankh I, second wife of Huni, mother of Sneferu
  • Hetepheres I, wife of Sneferu, mother of Khufu
  • Meritites I, wife of Khufu, mother of Kawab, Baufra, Djedefhor and Meresankh II
  • Henutsen, second wife of Khufu, mother of Khufukhaf I and Khafre
  • Nubet, fourth wife of
    Djedefra and Hetepheres II
  • Khamerernebti I, wife of Khafre, mother of Menkaure
  • Khamerernebti II, second wife Khafre then wife of Menkaure
  • Khentkaus I, wife of Shepseskaf then of Userkaf, mother of Neferirkare Kakai and Sahure
• Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
  • Nimaethap II, unknown husband
• Eleventh dynasty of Egypt
  • Neferu, wife of Intef II, mother of Intef III
  • Iah, wife of Intef III, mother of Mentuhotep II
  • Tem, first wife of Mentuhotep II, mother of Mentuhotep III
  • Neferu, second wife and sister of Mentuhotep II
  • Ashayet, concubine of Mentuhotep II, also a priestess of the goddess Hathor
  • Imi, wife of Mentuhotep III, mother of Mentuhotep IV
• Twelfth dynasty of Egypt
  • Neferet or Nofret, wife of a priest in Thebes, Senousret, mother of Amenemhat I
  • Neferitatjenen, principal wife of Amenemhat I, mother of Senusret I
  • Dedyet, other wife of Amenemhat I, possibly also his sister
  • Neferu III, wife of Senusret I, mother of Amenemhat II
  • Itakaiet, daughter or wife Senusret I
  • Neferusobek, Neferuptah, Nenseddjedet, daughters of Senusret I
  • Khenemetneferhedjet I, daughter of Amenemhat II
  • Neferet II, wife of Senusret II
  • Khenemetneferhedjet I, wife of Senusret II, mother of Senusret III
  • Sithathoryunet, daughter of Senusret II
  • Mereret or Meriret or Merit, wife of Senusret III
  • Sithathormerit, daughter of Senusret III
  • Sobekneferu, daughter of Amenemhat III, wife of her own brother Amenemhat IV
• Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Nubhotepti I, wife of Hor
  • Senebhenas I, wife of Khendjer
  • Senebhenas II and Neni, wives of Sobekhotep III
  • Senebsen, wife of Neferhotep I
  • Tjan, wife of Sobekhotep IV
  • Aya, wife of Intef
  • Sitmut, wife of
    Mentuhotep V
• Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Tati, wife of Sheshi
• Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Djehuti
• Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Noubkhaes II, wife of Sobekemsaf I
  • Sobekemsaf, wife of
    Antef VII
  • Noubemhet, wife of Sobekemsaf II
  • Senakhtenre Tao I
  • Seqenenre Tao II
  • Ahmose-Sipair
• Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Ahmose-Meritamon, daughter of Ahmose I and Ahmose-Nefertari, wife of her brother Amenhotep I
  • Ahmes, possible sister of Amenhotep I, wife of Thutmose I, mother of Hatshepsut and Amenemes
  • Mutnofret, second wife of Thutmose I, mother of Thutmose II
  • Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and of Ahmes, wife of her half-brother Thutmose II, mother of Neferure and Merytre-Hatshepsut
  • Iset, second wife of Thutmose II, mother of Thutmose III
  • Mutemwiya, wife of Thutmose IV, mother of Amenhotep III
  • Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
  • Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten
• Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Satre, wife of Ramesses I, mother of Seti I
  • Tuya, wife of Seti I
  • Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II
  • Isetnofret, second wife of Ramesses II, mother of Merneptah
  • Twosret, wife of Seti II
• Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt
  • Ptolemy II
  • Ptolemy III
  • Ptolemy IV
  • Ptolemy V
  • Ptolemy VIII
  • Ptolemy VIII
  • Ptolemy IX
  • Ptolemy IX
  • Ptolemy X
  • Ptolemy XII
  • Ptolemy XII
  • Ptolemy XV
  • Marc Antony, wife of Juba II, King of Numidia

• Beauty and cosmetics in ancient Egypt
• Women in Egypt

Bibliography

• Joyce Tyldesley, Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt, Penguin (1995)
  ISBN 978-0-14-017596-7
• Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, Harvard University Press (1993)
  ISBN 978-0-674-95469-4
• Carolyn Graves-Brown, Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt, Continuum (2010)
  ISBN 978-1-84725-054-4