IV. The role of women in social order
The many forms of repression and subjugation of women have been the result of the male-dominated social order.
A. Egyptian women
The Egyptian woman in general was free to go about in public; she worked out in the fields and in estate workshops. Certainly, she did not wear a veil, which is first documented among the ancient Assyrians (perhaps reflecting a tradition of the ancient Semitic- speaking people of the Syrian and Arabian Deserts). However, it was perhaps
unsafe for an Egyptian woman to venture far from her town alone. The love poetry of that era, as well as certain letters are quite frank about the public accessibility and freedom of women. In general, the work of the upper and middle class woman was limited to the home and the family. This was not due to an inferior legal status, but was probably a consequence of her customary role as mother and bearer of children, as well as the public role of the Egyptian husbands and sons who functioned as the executors of the mortuary cults of their deceased parents.
B. Hebrew women
Women in the Old Testament were not the social or economic equals of men. A married woman would be largely subject to the wishes of her husband, and an unmarried one to the wishes of her father. For example a husband or father had to consent before a woman could take religious vows (Numbers 30:3-5). This situation was roughly similar to the position of women in the surrounding societies of the time. In general, the women of highest status within the Pentateuch were pious married
mothers, especially mothers of sons (Meyers). For example, the prophetess Deborah was both married and a mother. Among the lowest of status in the Hebrew Bible are prostitutes, though interestingly, prostitution is not forbidden by the Old Testament.
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