Study Questions for Marilyn Arthur's Essay
and Class Lecture

"As a general proposition: Social advances and changes of periods are brought about by virtue of the progress of women towards liberty and the decadences of the social order are brought about by virtue of the decrease of liberty of women . . . . The extension of privileges to women is the general principle of all social progress."  Charles Fourier, Design for Utopia, 1971.

Classical Greece

In Theogony, Hesiod explains the creation of the universe.  What pattern appears in his telling?

How do the myths of Ancient Greece correspond to the socio-historical changes of its society?

How were the knowledge of differences between the sexes used to subjugate women?

What were some of the theories of these differences?

How does Greek society (and women's roles within it) change as it shifts from an aristocratic organization to a democratic one?

What changes occur in the Hellenistic World that improve conditions for women?