How did visiting ancient sites like Pompeii influence your thinking about the public and domestic roles of women in antiquity?
What contrasts or continuities did you notice between ancient and modern expressions of womanhood and power?
Something that I found interesting throughout the tour of Pompeii as well as the walking tour of women in Rome was the fact that despite marriage being emphasized so much, women tended to have much more influence and freedom when they were mistresses instead. A wife’s responsibility was simply to bear and raise children, but the mistress got gifts of jewelry and apparel. She was more likely to spend time with the husband during the day and therefore had more influence over his every day decisions as well as his more influential decisions (if he was in a position of power). In Pompeii, women that worked in brothels could sometimes be freed from their roles as sex slaves if a client fell in love and purchased their freedom. In that case, the freed brothel-worker had much more freedom to act as she wished within Pompeii than a house-wife did. In ancient Rome, Vestal Virgins spent 30 years fulfilling their obligations (10 years learning the rituals and traditions, 10 years performing the sacred duties, namely tending to the sacred fire of Vesta, and 10 years training the next generation of Vestal Virgins) After the 30 years, they also had much more freedom to act as they wished compared to a traditional Roman house wife. If they wanted to get married and have kids, many of them were still physically able to and could, and if they didn’t want a family, then they could still be a participating member of their society, giving wisdom they had gained during their years of service, and continuing to bring honor to the family because of their work as a Vestal Virgin. In some ways this dynamic is similar to the public and domestic roles we have in today’s society and how power is assigned to those roles. In today’s society, stay-at-home moms are often seen as “just moms,” and are respected less, often taken less seriously, and are sometimes patronized. Meanwhile, women that have careers outside of the home are typically respected more because they “have more of an impact on society.” I say that in quotes because while working women’s societal impact may be more direct and obvious, mothers create the next generation of citizens through their work as a parent. I find it incredibly ignorant and hypocritical that our society has deemed motherhood as something lesser-than in comparison to a career while also trying to emphasize the importance of the traditional family. It is interesting to me that this seems to be a trend dating very far back in our human history. In other ways however, the way that power has been assigned in modern public and domestic roles is completely different from ancient civilizations. Women that work in today’s sex industry or in religious institutions are not given nearly as much respect as the women in those roles in ancient civilizations. While ancient prostitutes weren’t respected, they were given freedom if their freedom was purchased, and that isn’t really a reality in today’s sex industry– especially as it relates to sex trafficking. Women stuck in sex trafficking often only get out if they are rescued. Their freedom is not as easily won as it may have been in Pompeii. Sometimes, such as if a sex worker is working entirely online, she may be able to step away from that line of work, but even then there is always the danger of a stalker or someone trying to find her in real life. Women working in religious institutions today are sometimes seen as mystical beings living a past life (for example, before staying at the monasteries, some of my only exposure to semi-modern nuns was The Sound of Music), or are simply called weird. Either way, they are not respected in the same way that ancient religious women were.