Editing Sparta (section)

===Political, social, and economic equality===
Spartan women, of the citizenry class, enjoyed a status, power, and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. The higher status of females in Spartan society started at birth; unlike Athens, Spartan girls were fed the same food as their brothers.<ref name="Xenophon, Spartan Society, 1">Xenophon, Spartan Society, 1</ref> Nor were they confined to their father's house and prevented from exercising or getting fresh air as in Athens, but exercised and even competed in sports.<ref name="Xenophon, Spartan Society, 1"/> Most important, rather than being married off at the age of 12 or 13, Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons for delaying marriage were to ensure the birth of healthy children, but the effect was to spare Spartan women the hazards and lasting health damage associated with [[Teenage pregnancy|pregnancy among adolescents]].  Spartan women, better fed from childhood and fit from exercise, stood a far better chance of reaching old age than their sisters in other Greek cities, where the median age for death was 34.6 years or roughly 10 years below that of men.{{sfn|Blundell|1999|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}}

Unlike [[Women in Classical Athens|Athenian women]] who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore dresses ([[peplos]]) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots. Girls as well as boys exercised, possibly in the nude, and young women as well as young men may have participated in the [[Gymnopaedia]] ("Festival of Nude Youths").<ref>Guttentag and Secord, 1983; Finley, 1982; Pomeroy, 1975</ref>{{sfn|Pomeroy|2002|p=34}}

Another practice that was mentioned by many visitors to Sparta was the practice of "wife-sharing".  In accordance with the Spartan belief that breeding should be between the most physically fit parents, many older men allowed younger, more fit men, to impregnate their wives.  Other unmarried or childless men might even request another man's wife to bear his children if she had previously been a strong child bearer.{{sfn|Powell|2001|p=248}} For this reason many considered Spartan women [[Polygamy|polygamous]] or [[Polyandry|polyandrous]].{{sfn|Blundell|1999|p=154}} This practice was encouraged in order that women bear as many strong-bodied children as they could. The Spartan population was hard to maintain due to the constant absence and loss of the men in battle and the intense physical inspection of newborns.{{sfn|Powell|2001|p=246}}

Spartan women were also literate and numerate, a rarity in the ancient world. Furthermore, as a result of their education and the fact that they moved freely in society engaging with their fellow (male) citizens, they were notorious for speaking their minds even in public.<ref>Maria Dettenhofer, "Die Frauen von Sparta", Reine Männer Sache, Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994, p. 25.</ref> Plato, in the middle of the fourth century, described women's curriculum in Sparta as consisting of gymnastics and mousike (music and arts). Plato praised Spartan women's ability when it came to philosophical discussion.{{sfn|Pomeroy|2002|p=9}}

Most importantly, Spartan women had economic power because they controlled their own properties, and those of their husbands. It is estimated that in later Classical Sparta, when the male population was in serious decline, women were the sole owners of at least 35% of all land and property in Sparta.<ref name=Pomeroy1995/> The laws regarding a divorce were the same for both men and women. Unlike women in Athens, if a Spartan woman became the heiress of her father because she had no living brothers to inherit (an ''[[epikleros]]''), the woman was not required to divorce her current spouse in order to marry her nearest paternal relative.<ref name=Pomeroy1995>Pomeroy, Sarah B. ''Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity''. New York: Schocken Books, 1995 pp. 60–62</ref>