HISTORICAL VIEWS OF WOMEN
In most societies of the past (if not the present), women have held a lower social status than men. This has become a truism in our culture and is not regarded as "anything new" by most thinking people today. Nevertheless, this generalization of women in the past should strike you as being somewhat vague and incomplete.
There is a need for more information. In fact,now that we are nearly halfway through the term, you should be realizing that there are a great variety of questions that can be asked of historical sources. In the following readings, consider these new questions: What specific views of women actually existed? How did these differ from culture to culture? What specific duties and roles did women have in various ancient societies? What were the bases of relationships between men and women in the past?
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Examine the following accounts of women India, China, Arabia and Europe.