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This article explores the role of women in ancient Egypt , with emphasis on their role in marriage, social status, legal and economic rights, their involvement in religious issues and finally the how they were represented in literature and art.
Egyptian women at the time - in contrast to the other ancient civilizations, such as the Greeks and the Mesopotamians- had excellent legal and social rights. These rights were even better than that of modern day women of the 1980s.
The status of women in the Old Kingdom is largely unknown, but archaeologists and scholars have given us some insight into it and women in middle and new kingdom, through their work translating ancient texts and through excavation digs. For example, there have been paintings in husband's tombs which depict the man and women as equal.
Also, sources from outside of Egypt , such as Herodotus, show that the women were allowed to go out in the marketplace and barter something that Greek women were not allowed to do . It seems that these equal rights seem to have been granted by Isis . This can be taken as showing a religious base for these rights dating back from the old kingdom.
 The civil rights of women were also expressed in literature. An example for this would be Egyptian wisdom texts, such as Ptahhoteps telling of the need to treat women equally. This wisdom texts speaks of women in three way, fertility, love and protection. These texts paint us a picture of women as a "fertile field" which points out the importance of fertility and its connection to women. This was also the case in other ancient civilizations. This fertility was not treated as an oppressive way, but rather as a loving way telling of using "ointment [to] soothe her body". The final sentence of the extract translated by Lichtheim says "thus you will make her stay in your house", indicating that women were allowed to leave their husbands and were not bound to the house, and the men would have to work to keep their wives with them.
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