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Today women are still fighting to reach an equal position to men in the society but this battle only started some 20 or 30 years ago. In ancient Egypt, the social position of a woman was mainly determined by the position of her father or husband but in any case, she had exactly the same rights as a man. The Egyptians were apparently the precursors of laws that were only applied thousands of years later.
Position of women in the society
Compared to the other civilisation of that time, the Egyptian woman had more freedom, more power and more rights. She could take on any position in the social hierarchy, she could even rule the country. Women weren't economically dependent on their husband because they had the right to own building, properties,... They usually got their possession through her parents' testament.
Men were usually busy with political and administrative matters while women would take care of the kids at home. That's why men were usually richer than women because they received a salary from their work while the woman was staying at home. This difference was clearly illustrated in art. If a man was rich, he could for example erect bigger buildings and as a consequence, most of the Egyptian sculptures were showing males characters. Another reason why there aren't many female characters in the Egyptian art is because the woman was represented as a symbol of fertility. And as fertility covers only a part of a woman's life, the only women who were represented were young and beautiful ladies with nice chest and hips as a sign of fertility. Getting older for a man didn't mean being forgotten, on the contrary. The role of a young man was to work, that's why they were represented with a young and vigorous body. Old men were a bit more fatty but their age gave them a new and higher position in the society, they could command younger men.
We still don't know how the partners were chosen but marriage was something natural in the Egyptian society. The common men had only one woman while the males members of the royal family usually had several women. There were no wedding ceremony, a man got married to a woman when they both decided to live under the same roof. Divorce was also a common thing. Neglecting the kids or cheating on the partner were among the most common reason to divorce. After the divorce, the man and the woman could get married with someone else again. The separation of possessions during a divorce depended on who was considered as guilty.
Family was the symbol of social unity, it is also clearly represented in art. As fertility was very important, a great attention was given to hygiene and health. Therefor papyri were written to help young women with subjects like fertility, birth, milk production and the welfare of the newly born babies. Egyptians were deeply concerned in fertility matters, that's why they developed tests to determine if a woman was fertile or not. They could also tell if a woman was pregnant and if the baby would live or die. In the new empire they had even invented something comparable to what woman use today during their menstruation. Egyptians were convinced that diseases, lack of fertility and rotten luck were caused by evil spirit. In order to assure the fertility of a woman, they used a little statue representing a young and beautiful naked woman that they would place somewhere in their house (mainly on an altar). Those statues were also sometimes offered to Hathor, the goddess who is related to sexuality, fertility, ...
In the early Egyptian civilisation, women were already busy with religious matters. There were lots of female priest, especially for Hathor who was the most important god for women (remember, Hathor is the goddess of fertility). They were often represented as women playing music on paintings because they were in charge of the musical accompaniment of rituals.
As the position in the hierarchy of a woman depended on the position of her father, it is obvious that a poor farmer woman couldn't reach the top of the society even if she was ambitious. The Pharaoh had several wives but only one (the queen) gave birth to the heir and future pharaoh. All the women that have marked the Egyptian political life were daughters of Pharaohs. Even if the Pharaoh was the absolute ruler, the Queen could use influence her husband's decisions. Nefertiti, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra are example of queens that have exerted a great power in Egypt. Hatshepsut and Cleopatra ruled alone. A child born out of a relation between a Pharaoh and his second wife could not be become Pharaoh because only the Queen could give birth to the future Pharaoh. Thutmose III's mother was the second wife of Thutmose II, this means that he couldn't have accessed the throne because of his mother but Thutmose III became Pharaoh ! Hatshepsut who was Thutmose II's wife had no son, no heirs. She had only a daughter who died before accessing the throne. Thutmose III was considered as a bastard but he finally took the power after Hatshepsut's death.
