How have women, at different times and in different places, been perceived when they cross the sharp boundaries between public and private realms? This broad-ranging study, edited by professors Garlick, Dixon, and Allen, points to enduring themes about women who acquire political power and/or become public figures. The assessments describe domineering dowagers, witches, and scheming concubines in various cultures in ancient, medieval, and modern times. Teachers and students interested in feminist theory, in the role of women historically, and in politics and history generally, will find this a useful sourcebook.This interesting collection demonstrates the continuing ambivalence toward women in positions of power and authority, and shows how women have been limited by gender-coded lines drawn between their roles in the public and private sphere, in the home and the polis. The evaluations by historians, literary critics, and present-day scholars illustrate the views toward women in ancient Egypt, Rome, Byzantium, medieval Iceland, China's Ming Dynasty, Machiavelli's time, the Victorian era, and today. Also covered is the political representation of women in a variety of cultures and historical periods.

Stereotypes of Women in Power: Historical Perspectives and Revisionist Views (Contributions in Women's Studies)

Politics & Social Sciences

Dixon, Suzanne

Allen, Pauline

Garlick, Barbara

Social Sciences

Praeger

The traditional Roman attitude to mothers and motherhood is traced back to its Republican origins. 'A most useful addition to recent books on Roman women' JACT Review. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of Roman history and women's studies.

The Roman Mother

Taylor & Francis Books Ltd

Cornelia (Women of the Ancient World)

Examining the remarkable life of Cornelia, famed as the epitome of virtue, fidelity and intelligence, Suzanne Dixon presents an in-depth study of the woman who perhaps represented the ideal of the Roman matrona more than any other. Studying her life during a period of political turmoil, Dixon examines Cornelia's attributes: daughter of Scipio Africanus, wife of an aristocrat, and mother of the Gracchi; and how these enabled her to move in high echelons of society. For students and scholars of classical studies and Roman history, this book will give students a glimpse into the life of Cornelia, and of the influence she had on the period.

Cornelia: Mother of the Gracchi (Women of the Ancient World)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Routledge

The Roman Mother (Routledge Revivals)

The Roman Mother, first published in 1988, traces the traditional Roman attitude towards mothers to its republican origins, examining the diverse roles and the relative power and influence associated with motherhood. The importance of the paterfamilias with his wide-ranging legal rights and obligations is familiar, but much less attention has been devoted to the equally interesting position and duties of mothers and the particular limitations on their actions. The author considers the legal position of the mother, the status of the widow and her testamentary position; the official promotion of parenthood by Augustan legislation; and the duties of mother to sons and daughters and vice versa, as they altered throughout the children’s lives. Literary stereotypes of ideal senatorial mothers and of wicked step-mothers also have their part to play in interpreting the Roman view of motherhood, and the influence of such values on the course of Roman history.

History

Ancient Civilizations

The Roman Mother, first published in 1988, traces the traditional Roman attitude towards mothers to its republican origins, examining the diverse roles and the relative power and influence associated with motherhood. The importance of the paterfamilias with his wide-ranging legal rights and obligations is familiar, but much less attention has been devoted to the equally interesting position and duties of mothers and the particular limitations on their actions. The author considers the legal position of the mother, the status of the widow and her testamentary position; the official promotion of parenthood by Augustan legislation; and the duties of mother to sons and daughters and vice versa, as they altered throughout the children’s lives. Literary stereotypes of ideal senatorial mothers and of wicked step-mothers also have their part to play in interpreting the Roman view of motherhood, and the influence of such values on the course of Roman history.

Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, revealing patterns unanticipated by current theories of child development and raising provocative questions about the concept of "normal" child care. Comparing the Gusii people of Kenya with the American white middle class, the authors show how divergent cultural priorities create differing conditions for early childhood development. Combining the perspectives of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, the authors demonstrate how child care customs can be responsive to varied socioeconomic, demographic, and cultural conditions without inflicting harm on children. This text will be of interest to researchers in child development and anthropology.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Brazelton, T. Berry

LeVine, Robert A.

LeVine, Sarah

Richman, Amy

Leiderman, P. Herbert

Keefer, Constance H.

Psychology & Counseling

Cambridge University Press

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, revealing patterns unanticipated by current theories of child development and raising provocative questions about the concept of "normal" child care. Comparing the Gusii people of Kenya with the American white middle class, the authors show how divergent cultural priorities create differing conditions for early childhood development. Combining the perspectives of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, the authors demonstrate how child care customs can be responsive to varied socioeconomic, demographic, and cultural conditions without inflicting harm on children. This text will be of interest to researchers in child development and anthropology.

Roman women were either luxurious sluts or domestic paragons - at least according to the elite men who wrote Roman history and poetry. These authors, preoccupied with masculine pursuits, introduced women into their works to make a moral point. Even Roman tombstones and the law showcase feminine virtues and reflect biases about "female nature". We also have our own prejudices about ancient Rome and Roman women. Derived from film, television and sensational novels, these prejudices affect the way we "read" the ancient material. So how do we retrieve the lives of "real women"? 
This book presents a range of examples to support the argument that our ideas of what we "know" about women's work, sexuality, commerce and political activity in the Roman world have been shaped by the format, or genre, of each ancient source. She suggests ways in which we can read the evidence (including what is left out) more critically. 
She considers legendary heroines like Verginia and Lucretia and what they tell us about Roman attitudes to rape and women's chastity; she looks sympathetically on notorious bad girls like Clodia and Messalina and tries to retrieve less spectacular women from the meagre non-literary sources. She introduces us to a huge cast of Roman women, not only the larger-than-life decadents of the Roman orgy, but the small traders of Ostia, the spinners, prostitutes and barmaids celebrated in Pompeian graffiti and the prosperous businesswomen and landowners of Rome and the Bay of Naples.

Reading Roman Women

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Bristol Classical Press

Unfaithful spouses, divorce and remarriage, rebellious children, aging parents--today's headlines are filled with issues said to be responsible for a "breakdown" of the traditional family. But are any of these problems truly new? What can we learn from the ways in which societies dealt with them in the past? Suzanne Dixon sets the current debate about the family against a broader context in The Roman Family, the first book to bring together what historians, anthropologists, and philologists have learned about the family in ancient Rome. Dixon begins by reviewing the controversies regarding the family in general and the Roman family in particular. After considering the problems of evidence, she explores what the Roman concept of "family" really meant and how Roman families functioned. Turning to the legal status of the Roman family, she shows how previous studies, which relied exclusively on legal evidence, fell short of describing the reality of Roman life. (Many relations not recognized by law--the slave family, for instance, or the marriage of imperial soldiers--were tolerated socially and eventually gained some legal recognition.) Other topics include love and other aspects of the institution of marriage, the role of the children in the family, how families adjusted to new members, and how they dealt with aging and death.

The Roman Family (Ancient Society and History)

Parenting & Relationships

The Johns Hopkins University Press

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