Women's Role in Empires

Have you ever pondered why woman are fighting for equal rights year after year? Well the fight for rights has been going on longer than you can imagine. Sexism is something that greatly influenced ancient empires and it is still in full effect today. Despite robust sexism many women rose above this and became leaders while others fell back in the shadows of men. “A woman was like a child in the eyes of the law.” (Bulliet 145) A fight still being battled to this day is the woman’s rights. Woman’s rights, or lack thereof mainly consist of education and business. If a young girl was fortunate enough to receive any education at all, it would be minimal. As far as business goes, unless a female was married in manu (in her husband’s control) she could not own or inherit property. They also were forced to keep a tutela or guardian until their death. It was extremely rare for a woman to run her own business. The others were more likely than not lamp-makers, midwives, hairdressers or in few cases doctors. There was an abundant amount of slaves. Slavery fell into categories; maids, farm workers or possibly gladiators. If a woman’s husband passed away she was known as a widow. She would then be left with no choice but to be strong and independent, after all, she is under no man’s rule. Widows were some of the wealthiest women in empires. Other well-to-do females may have decided to be a priestess’. (PBS) Woman that decided to take a stand and had no tolerance for men’s spiteful feelings toward female leaders, decided to rule. The following include some of the most well-known females to lead an empire; Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire, Borte Ujin of the Mongolian Empire, Theodora of the Byzantine Empire, Queen Victoria of the British Empire, Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire and Empress Wu Zetian of the Chinese Empire. Empress Wu Zetian is pictured below. She is a textbook example of a woman who resiliently lead an empire and still was disregarded by men. She is specifically known for expanding the empire, strengthening economics and reforming education. Despite her undoubtedly noble achievements, she still had hecklers who claimed that she was all too harsh. They even accused her of killing her children, a daughter and a son as a part of ‘political intrigue’, or deceit. (BigThink) 

(ChinaDaily)

As a female it is disappointing to learn how women have been treated in the past. This generation learns and studies history for a vast amount of reasons. However, one of the main reasons is so that we as humans do not repeat past mistakes. The fact that women were not treated equal or with much respect 2000 years back makes it even more unacceptable for us females to be thought of us an inferior in the present day. Treating others equal is a decision you can easily make and it would greatly affect the world in the most positive way possible. That then triggers the question, when is this going to stop? When are we as a generation going to grow up, and realize that the only thing getting in our way is ourselves, and the way that we mistreat others?  

Works Cited

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/women.html.                                  Ratner, Paul. “Top 15 Most Powerful Women in History.” Big Think, 6 Nov. 2016, bigthink.com/paul-ratner/top-15-most-powerful-women-in-history.                                                                                                  冯璐. “Home.” Empress Wu Zetian and Longmen Grottoes, henan.chinadaily.com.cn/longmen/2015-08/17/content_21626166.htm.