Emily Grise - DBQ

1. The duties of a woman are summed up in the first sentence of Aristotle’s On A Good Wife.
This reads, “A good wife should be the mistress of her home, having under her care all that is
within it, according to the rules we have laid down.” In On Men and Women, Xenophon enforces
the point that a woman’s position is inside while a man’s is outside. A woman’s job is to conduct
everything that goes on inside the home, including caring for the children, delegating tasks to
servants, and controlling the money with the approval of her husband. When controlling the
money, she is to make sure she dresses herself humbly. When delegating tasks to servants, a
woman remains in the house while she sends out them to complete duties outside of the home.
The wife is to be subordinate to her husband, treating his wishes like divine will and avoiding
pointing out his wrongdoings. The husband is to train the wife so she can bring him noble
children. The status of a woman is very low outside of the home. She is to have no part in public
affairs or the arranging of her children’s marriages. Her honor is determined by the faithfulness
of her husband. These roles are assigned by God, shown in Xenophon’s writings, “I take it that
God has assigned the indoor tasks.”
2. Simonides does not like women. He describes them as “the greatest pain of all.” Comparing
them to animals, he gives women the following qualities: dirty, fat, aware, moody, nosey,
talkative, dumb, hospitable, lazy, too clean, ugly, long-legged, and shameless. The criticization
of women using opposite terms shows that women can never be good enough in his view. He
criticizes if women are dirty or too clean, aware or dumb, and hospitable or lazy. He does
describe a woman that suits his expectations in comparison with a bee. She has a thriving
household, is loving, will live long, bears “illustrious and handsome children”, and avoids
discussing sex. Before he can even get to this description, however, he exclaims how this woman
is impossible to find. “Good luck in finding such a woman!” It is not clear why he equates
women with animals. This could be that, with the man’s position being outside, he believed men
would be familiar with animals, making it a good source of comparison. The use of animals
could also be an effect of Simonides looking down on animals as he does on women. Today’s
society does use these same kind of categories to classify women, though not as blatant as
Simonides’ writing. It seems that the expectations of women today make it impossible for
women to meet every ideal. While they are being told to act one way, they are warned not to act
too much in the other direction.
3. It is possible to see the way in which women were expected to act, but it lacks the ways in
which women were able to break this societal role. The role given to a woman in this society was
decided by men. They decided that women belonged inside without any public role. Writings
accessible currently are written by these same men, so it is fair to say the role of a woman in this
society is accurately described. Without women’s views in writing, we cannot be sure of how/if
these social barriers were broken. Does this lack of written documentation tell readers that
women were not able to break past barriers, or does it just mean that these instances were left out
of the narrative? With these three sources, it is possible to assume the expectations put on
women, but readers should also keep in mind the point of view that is left behind.