Editing Women's rights (section)

==== Rome ====
{{Further|Women in ancient Rome}}
[[File: Pompeii - Fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus 2 - MAN.jpg|thumb|right|Women working alongside a man at a dye shop (''fullonica''), on a wall painting from Pompeii]]
Roman law was created by men in favor of men.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book|title = The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History: 4 Volume Se|last = Smith|first = Bonnie G|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 2008|isbn = 978-0-19-514890-9|location = London, UK|pages = [https://archive.org/details/oxfordencycloped0000unse_k2h2/page/422 422–25]|url = https://archive.org/details/oxfordencycloped0000unse_k2h2/page/422}}</ref> Women had no public voice and no public role, which only improved after the 1st century to the 6th century BCE.<ref name=":1">[[A. N. Sherwin-White]], ''Roman Citizenship'' (Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 211, 268; Bruce W. Frier and Thomas A. J. McGinn, ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 31–32, 457, ''et passim''.</ref> Freeborn women of [[ancient Rome]] were [[Roman citizenship|citizens]] who enjoyed legal privileges and protections that did not extend to [[peregrinus (Roman)|non-citizens]] or [[slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]]. [[Social class in ancient Rome|Roman society]], however, was [[patriarchal]], and women could not vote, hold [[Roman magistrate|public office]], or serve in the military.<ref>Sherwin-White (1979), ''Roman Citizenship'', pp. 211 and 268; Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', pp. 31–32, 457, ''et passim''.</ref> Women of the upper classes exercised political influence through marriage and motherhood. During the [[Roman Republic]], the mothers [[Cornelia Africana|of the Gracchus brothers]] and [[Aurelia Cotta|of Julius Caesar]] were noted as exemplary women who advanced the careers of their sons. During the [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]], women of the emperor's family could acquire considerable political power and were regularly depicted in official art and on coinage.<ref>Walter Eck, "The Emperor and His Advisors", ''Cambridge Ancient History'' (Cambridge University History, 2000), p. 211.</ref>

The central core of Roman society was the ''[[pater familias]]'' or the male head of the household who exercised his authority over all his children, servants, and wife.<ref name=":04"/> Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will.<ref name="David Johnston 1999 p. 134">David Johnston, ''Roman Law in Context'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), chapter 3.3; Frier and McGinn (2004), '' A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', Chapter IV; Yan Thomas, "The Division of the Sexes in Roman Law", in ''A History of Women from Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints'' (Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 134.</ref> Roman women had a guardian (called "tutor") who managed and oversaw all her activity.<ref name=":04"/> This tutelage had limited female activity but by the first century to sixth century BCE, tutelage became very relaxed and women were accepted to participate in more public roles such as owning and managing property or acting as municipal patrons for gladiator games and other entertainment activities<ref name=":04"/> Childbearing was encouraged by the state. By 27–14 BCE the ''ius tritium liberorum'' ("legal right of three children") granted symbolic honors and legal privileges to a woman who had given birth to three children and freed her from any male guardianship.<ref>Yan Thomas, "The Division of the Sexes in Roman Law", in ''A History of Women from Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints'' (Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 133.</ref>

In the earliest period of the Roman Republic, a bride passed from her father's control into the "hand" ''(manus)'' of her husband. She then became subject to her husband's ''potestas'', though to a lesser degree than their children.<ref>Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', p. 20.</ref> This archaic form of ''manus'' marriage was largely abandoned by the time of [[Julius Caesar]], when a woman remained under her father's authority by law even when she moved into her husband's home. This arrangement was one of the factors in the independence Roman women enjoyed.<ref>[[Eva Cantarella]], ''Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 140–41; J.P. Sullivan, "Martial's Sexual Attitudes", ''Philologus'' 123 (1979), p. 296, specifically on sexual freedom.</ref>

Although women had to answer to their fathers in legal matters, they were free of his direct scrutiny in their daily lives,<ref>Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family", in ''The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives'' (Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 15.</ref> and their husbands had no legal power over them.<ref>Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', pp. 19–20, 22.</ref> When a woman's father died, she became legally emancipated ''([[sui iuris]])''. A married woman retained ownership of any [[property]] she brought into the marriage.<ref name="autogenerated19">Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', pp. 19–20.</ref> Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will.<ref name="David Johnston 1999 p. 134"/> Under classical [[Roman law]], a husband had no right to abuse his wife physically or compel her to have sex.<ref>Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'', p. 95.</ref> Wife beating was sufficient grounds for divorce or other legal action against the husband.<ref>Garrett G. Fagan, "Violence in Roman Social Relations", in ''The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 487.</ref>

Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women in ancient Rome could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business.<ref>Frier and McGinn (2004), ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law,'' p. 461; W.V. Harris, "Trade", in ''The Cambridge Ancient History: The High Empire A.D. 70–192'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. 11, p. 733.</ref> Some acquired and disposed of sizable fortunes, and are recorded in inscriptions as benefactors in funding major public works.<ref>Woodhull, Margaret L., "Matronly Patrons in the Early Roman Empire: The Case of Salvia Postuma", in ''Women's Influence on Classical Civilization'' (Routledge, 2004), p. 77.</ref> Roman women could appear in court and argue cases, though it was customary for them to be represented by a man.<ref>Bauman, Richard A., ''Women and Politics in Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 1992, 1994), p. 50.</ref> They were simultaneously disparaged as too ignorant and weak-minded to practice law, and as too active and influential in legal matters—resulting in an edict that limited women to conducting cases on their own behalf instead of others'.<ref>Bauman, ''Women and Politics'', pp. 50–51; Juvenal, ''Satire'' 6, on women busy in the courts.</ref> But even after this restriction was put in place, there are numerous examples of women taking informed actions in legal matters, including dictating legal strategy to their male advocates.<ref>Bauman, ''Women and Politics'', pp. 51–52.</ref>

Roman law recognized [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Rape|rape]] as a crime in which the victim bore no guilt<ref>Staples, Ariadne, ''From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion'' (Routledge, 1998), pp. 81–82; Jane F. Gardner, ''Women in Roman Law and Society'' (Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 118ff. Roman law also recognized [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#The rape of men|rape committed against males]].</ref> and a capital crime.<ref>[[Amy Richlin|Richlin, Amy]], "Not before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the ''cinaedus'' and the Roman Law against Love between Men", ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'' 3.4 (1993), pp. 562–63.</ref> The rape of a woman was considered an attack on her family and father's honour, and rape victims were shamed for allowing the bad name in her father's honour.<ref name=":04" /> As a matter of law, rape could be committed only against a citizen in good standing. The rape of a slave could be prosecuted only as damage to her owner's property.<ref>Under the ''[[Lex Aquilia]];'' Thomas A. J. McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 314; Gardner, ''Women in Roman Law and Society'', p. 119.</ref>

[[File:Bronze young girl reading CdM Paris.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Bronze statuette of a young woman reading (latter 1st century)]]
The first [[Roman emperor]], [[Augustus]], framed his ascent to sole power as a return to [[Mos maiorum|traditional morality]], and attempted to regulate the conduct of women through [[Leges Iuliae|moral legislation]]. [[Marriage in ancient Rome#Adultery|Adultery]], which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized,<ref>Beth Severy, ''Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Empire'' (Routledge, 2002; Taylor & Francis, 2004), p. 4.</ref> and defined broadly as an illicit sex act ''([[stuprum]])'' that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband. Therefore, a married woman could have sex only with her husband, but a married man did not commit adultery when he had sex with a prostitute, [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Master-slave relations|slave]], or person of marginalized status ''([[infamia|infamis]])''.<ref>Thomas McGinn, "Concubinage and the Lex Iulia on Adultery", ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' 121 (1991), p. 342; Nussbaum, "The Incomplete Feminism of Musonius Rufus", p. 305, noting that custom "allowed much latitude for personal negotiation and gradual social change"; [[Elaine Fantham]], "''Stuprum'': Public Attitudes and Penalties for Sexual Offences in Republican Rome", in ''Roman Readings: Roman Response to Greek Literature from Plautus to Statius and Quintilian'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2011), p. 124, citing [[Papinian]], ''De adulteriis'' I and [[Modestinus]], ''Liber Regularum'' I. [[Eva Cantarella]], ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'' (Yale University Press, 1992, 2002, originally published 1988 in Italian), p. 104; Catherine Edwards, ''The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 34–35.</ref> Most [[prostitution in ancient Rome|prostitutes in ancient Rome]] were slaves, though some slaves were protected from forced prostitution by a clause in their sales contract.<ref>McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law'', pp. 288ff.</ref> A free woman who worked as a prostitute or entertainer lost her social standing and became ''[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Pleasure and infamy|infamis]]'', "disreputable"; by making her body publicly available, she had in effect surrendered her right to be protected from sexual abuse or physical violence.<ref>Gardner, ''Women in Roman Law and Society'', p. 119; McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome'', p. 326.</ref>

[[Stoicism|Stoic philosophies]] influenced the development of Roman law. Stoics of the Imperial era such as [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] and [[Musonius Rufus]] developed theories of [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Stoic sexual morality|just relationships]]. While not advocating equality in society or under the law, they held that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously, and that therefore men and women had an equal need for philosophical education.<ref name="Colish"/> These philosophical trends among the ruling elite are thought to have helped improve the status of women under the Empire.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Ratnapala| first = Suri| title = Jurisprudence| publisher = Cambridge University Press| year = 2009| pages =134–35 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tNwdWlXxZt8C&q=Stoic+law+women| isbn = 978-0-521-61483-2 }}</ref> Rome had no system of state-supported schooling, and education was available only to those who could pay for it. The daughters of [[Ordo senatorius|senators and knights]] seem to have regularly received a primary education (for ages 7 to 12).<ref>[[Marietta Horster]], "Primary Education", in ''The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 90.</ref> Regardless of gender, few people were educated beyond that level. Girls from a modest background might be schooled in order to help with the family business or to acquire literacy skills that enabled them to work as scribes and secretaries.<ref>Beryl Rawson, ''Children and Childhood in Roman Italy'' (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 80.</ref> The woman who achieved the greatest prominence in the ancient world for her learning was [[Hypatia of Alexandria]], who taught advanced courses to young men and advised the Roman [[prefect of Egypt]] on politics.<ref>Morgan, Teresa, "Education", in ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 20.</ref>

[[File:Dextrorum iunctio edited.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|Couple clasping hands in marriage, idealized by Romans as the building block of society and as a partnership of companions who work together to produce and rear children, manage everyday affairs, lead exemplary lives, and enjoy affection<ref>[[Martha C. Nussbaum|Nussbaum, Martha C.]], "The Incomplete Feminism of Musonius Rufus, Platonist, Stoic, and Roman", in ''The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002), p. 300; Sabine MacCormack, "Sin, Citizenship, and the Salvation of Souls: The Impact of Christian Priorities on Late-Roman and Post-Roman Society", ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 39.4 (1997), p. 651.</ref>]]