A woman’s social position in ancient Egypt is clear from the art of the time. Ancient Egyptian art did not portray an individual rather the ideal that confirmed them. Women were the ideal for progeny. Therefore, the status of women and paintings always depicted women in youthful beauty with accentuated hips and breasts, the body parts associated with childbearing. There are no available paintings, statures, or any other art form depicting older or fuller women.
A woman in society was valued for her position as a child bearer, and her role in society was constricted to domestic life. Elite women in ancient Egypt were excluded from bureaucracy, and had their job in domestic life and raising children (Robbins 82). However, men had greater economic wealth than women, as they were paid a government salary. The economic disparity between men and women was evident from the tombs, status, etc. that were erected more by men than women. A wife is considered as an equal according to the decorations of a husband’s tomb, as she participated with him as an equal in all phases of his life on earth.
A woman in Egypt had the right to deliver the property received from her husband to whomever she chose. A woman could choose to have a household with another man or could disinherit her children of her private property. One such example was found through the tale of an old woman from Deir el-Medina during the New Kingdom, who disinherited her private property inherited from her first marriage and her father, as well as the community property of her second marriage to four of her eight children.
A woman’s highest aim in life was to bear children. A fertile woman gathered a high position in society as the child-bearer. The high prominence of the concept of fertility in Egyptian society can be found in the emphasized breasts, hips, and nipples in statues and paintings. There was evidence of false nipples added on the mummified status of women. Pregnancy elevated the status of Egyptian women, who gained her husband’s approval, and admiration from relatives and lesser fortunate women. However, Egyptian society was not harsh on women who could not bear children. Men who had a wife who could not bear children could be divorced legally but this was not a socially accepted norm in Egypt. The more accepted concept in Egypt was to adopt a child.
Egyptian world was formed in male and female duality, and females were considered equals in all aspects. Queens of Egypt have often been found in pictographs as crushing the head of the enemies, or as an executioner of prisoners. She has been shown as holding roles as a farmer, princess, administrator, and trader. Therefore, women of Egypt were found to hold different jobs and roles, though their primary role was to manage the domestic life and bearer of children.