d figs. Domestic honey was a craved delicacy. Each day the wife would bake the supply of bread and brew the day’s beer. At meals, the husband was served first. He was followed by his children, and finally the last servings went to the mother. This was always the smallest, and possibly just the scraps. Aside from cooking and cleaning, women had other chores like fetching water from the river or the well, or procuring fuel for her fire. In her spare time, a woman would weave and spin. In the lower class, peasant women lived a very hard life physically, with only short “pauses” to bear children. In the upper classes, life was easier; the menial chores of housework were performed by servants. As a result, the wealthy classes had much more leisure time, and the women spent their time playing with their children, or accompanying their husbands on hunts. Pictures have been found depicting women playing board games and with pet animals.Even though the mother had so much responsibility, she still developed a very special bond with her children. It was much a much deeper bond than a child would have with his or her father. Sons held their mothers on an emotional level, which was even higher than his wife was.Owning property and accumulating great wealth may have given Egyptian women social mobility, but it did not open up a large pool of available jobs. Men were the only members of the society who were schooled in arts of reading and writing, and it was a very small percentage that was afforded the privilege. Being a largely illiterate society, most Egyptian men and women spent their lives as uneducated peasants. The Egyptian society did not force women to remain at home, but neither did it encourage them to become educated. So, since it was only men who were literate, women were automatically excluded from the government, the army and other jobs in civil service, and the high positions in religion.Women did not ...
