Comparing women and power

e.g.: in both cases women put pressure on men in public (the leading Athenian women came to court; the matronae blocked the streets and appealed to the magistrates); both laws restricted women and were changed in their favour; in both the final decision was made by men (the Athenians / the Roman assembly); in both the women acted together as a group.

e.g.: Agnodice's law was changed after a trial before the Areopagus, the Oppian Law after a political debate and a vote; the Athenian women spoke in court to their husbands, the Roman women demonstrated in the streets and lobbied magistrates; the Athenian law was amended (free-born women allowed to learn medicine), the Oppian Law was repealed completely; one concerned women's work, the other their wealth and dress; Agnodice's story is a legend told by Hyginus, the repeal is a historical event recorded by Livy; in Rome men such as Cato and Valerius spoke for and against.

e.g.: we cannot tell whether the women are citizens, poorer women or slaves; the painter was a man; many such vases were made for export or for sale, not as records of life; the scene may be idealised; it shows only one activity; it may show a particular famous fountain house rather than everyday life.

e.g.: wealthy families sent slaves to fetch water, so the women may be slaves rather than citizen wives (1), and the vase may tell us little about how respectable women spent their days (1). Or: the scene is a neat, idealised composition by a male painter for buyers, many of them abroad (1), so it shows an attractive image rather than an accurate record (1). Or: it shows one task outside the home and says nothing of the women's lives indoors, their legal position or their feelings (1).

Source A, e.g.: 'well read in Greek and Latin literature'; she could play the lyre and dance; she could write verse and raise a laugh; 'much wit and much charm'. Source B, e.g.: Phanostrate is called 'midwife and doctor'; 'she caused pain to no one'; 'all missed her'; the children around her.

Indicative content (not a checklist; credit other valid points): Source A - knowledge of Greek and Latin literature shows a high level of education for an elite Roman woman; music, dance and poetry are cultural accomplishments far beyond spinning and managing slaves; her wit and conversation suggest she could hold her own in the company of educated men; but Sallust presents these talents as dangerous - 'more skilfully than a respectable woman needs', 'serve a life of luxury' - linking them with her immorality and her part in the conspiracy. Source B - 'midwife and doctor' shows a woman practising a skilled profession and being paid for it; 'caused pain to no one' praises her gentle skill as a healer; 'all missed her' shows the community respected her work; the children may be those she delivered or her own; the inscription contradicts Hyginus' claim that Athenian women could not practise medicine. Both - some women had skills valued outside the home; but attitudes differ - the Athenian monument celebrates useful, respectable skill, whereas Sallust admires Sempronia's talents only grudgingly and treats them as a sign of moral danger. An answer cannot gain two AO2 marks for listing traits; each mark needs an explanation of how the detail shows the idea.

Indicative content (not a checklist; credit other valid points): AO1: Greece - Praxagora: women in disguise vote in the Assembly to hand the city to women; her arguments (women keep the old ways, as mothers they will protect soldiers, they are good with money); the new regime of shared property and partners; a farce by a man for a male audience (about 391 BC). Agnodice (Hyginus, Fabulae 274): cut her hair and dressed as a man to study under Herophilus; treated women; accused by jealous doctors before the Areopagus; revealed herself; the leading women called their husbands 'enemies'; the law was changed for free-born women. Rome - the Oppian Law (215 BC): limits on gold, coloured clothes and carriages; in 195 BC the matronae left their homes, blocked the Forum's approaches, appealed to consuls and praetors, besieged the Bruti's doors; Cato's speech ('the moment they become your equals, they will be your superiors'); Valerius' reply; repeal. Sempronia (Sallust 24-25): 'crimes of masculine daring', educated, witty, extravagant; part of a conspiracy to burn Rome and kill opponents; her husband's house, where she lived, used to meet the Allobroges' envoys (Sallust 40); the conspiracy crushed in 63-62 BC. AO2: Praxagora's challenge is the greatest in scale - a total takeover of the state - but it is fiction, a joke that reassured men by its absurdity; Agnodice's challenge was real in effect (a law changed, a male profession opened), but limited to medicine and probably legendary; the Oppian protest was a real, collective, successful challenge to male authority in the streets and the Forum, frightening enough for Cato; but it aimed only to recover women's ornaments and needed men's votes; Sempronia joined a violent plot against the state itself, but as part of a male-led conspiracy that failed. Judgement, e.g.: the Roman women posed the greater real challenge - collective and successful - while the Greek challenges were imagined or legendary, though Praxagora's imagined challenge shows the deepest male anxiety.