Abstract: Women’s work, in most accounts of the ancient Greek world, consisted largely of domestic activities such as childcare, weaving, and food preparation. Such labor, done without pay and at home, has typically been treated as mere background noise, economically unimportant and largely unworthy of analysis in assessments of the ancient economy. Similarly, women’s labor for the market economy has been undervalued and often ignored. Although in the literary and epigraphic record, women of various social statuses worked in numerous professions, including retail, foodservice, midwifery, and tavern keeping, synthetic accounts of the ancient Greek economy often group women’s labor into a single section, while men’s labor is curiously unmarked by gender. The ancient economic actor, then, is tacitly assumed to be male unless proven otherwise. This paper argues that a comprehensive account of the ancient economy would necessarily consider the economic contribution of women—both for their households and the larger economy—and that archaeological evidence can provide vital evidence of women’s labor. I will explore this argument using a case study of the textile industry of 5th and 4th century Athens.
This event is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America Lubbock Society, CMLL, and Women's and Gender Studies.
