The Power of Athenian Women

For centuries, history books painted ancient Athenian women as prisoners of their own homes—but a closer look at the evidence reveals they were secretly running the social fabric of the classical world.

In David Cohen’s “Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens,” he delivers an interesting analysis of the history recorded about this specific topic in Athens. Cohen centers his writing on the question: what was the role of women in Athenian society, and how did this impact their social lives? The author’s argument can best be summarized in his thesis. Cohen argues that women had a much larger role in public life in Athenian society than what is believed by many scholars. David Cohen writes an effective paper that supports his claim. By using multiple primary and secondary sources as well as comparing Athens to surrounding regions, Cohen has created a convincing argument defending his thesis about Athenian women.

Throughout the writing, Cohen uses a large amount of evidence to support his claim. Some of the evidence is just a simple sentence or two, while other pieces of evidence are whole paragraphs that he takes from other researchers. The large pieces of evidence are used to set up the next paragraph in his paper, while the single sentenced evidence helps add to Cohen’s analyzation of the time. Cohen’s first few pages discuss the general understanding of how women’s lives were in ancient Athens. He uses evidence from two different authors, Aristophanes and Euripides. These two authors provide Cohen with the primary sources needed to base the rest of his argument on. The writings by these two men contain the best examples from that time period pertaining to the topic at hand. He tells the reader that the general understanding is that women would live secluded and separate lives from men and would rarely leave the confines of their homes. Cohen provides strong evidence by quoting an example of the environment from Flaceliere when he says, “Whereas married women seldom crossed the thresholds of their own front door, adolescent girls were lucky if they were allowed as far as the yard since they had to stay where they could not be seen even from the male members of the family.” David Cohen then begins to introduce his argument that women in Athens were much more social and interesting than what was depicted by ancient writers and some scholars who interpret the history literally.

Cohen compares a wide array of anthropologists, people who study society and cultures. He seems to side with two writers and bases a large portion of his arguments off of their studies. Pitt-Rivers and Bourdieu give Cohen expert opinions of the Athenian environment and how the social interactions between men and women occurred. Cohen uses the Pitt-Rivers research to compare Athens to other Mediterranean communities. They are able to use the context of similar societies to understand Athens. He uses Bourdieu to bring excellent examples of how the women of Athens actually got out of their homes and socialized with people other than their family. One great example of these two pieces of evidence working together is when Bourdieu describes how the women of Kabyle would converse at the fountain. Cohen then uses this example and is able to create an assumption that this would have also been the case in Athens. Cohen continues to use this method throughout his entire paper, and it is very effective. The evidence that he pulls is convincing and appropriate for the topic.

David Cohen’s paper covered both sides of the argument and provided rebuttals to the researchers who had the opposite stance. Cohen was able to dive deeper into the history of Athens and discover more about the lives of women rather than take the previous writings of Athenian history at face value. His talent for taking examples found in history and interpreting them to defend his argument was effective. Overall, the paper accomplished Cohen’s goal of conveying his stance to the audience. By using solid evidence and reasonable claims, Cohen successfully answered his historical question and delivered an excellent argument.

Bibliography:

Cohen, David. “Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens.” Greece and Rome, Vol. 36, no. 1 (1989)

Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown Essential Handbook. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2015.