Unlike other Greek city-states, women played a vital role in Spartan society as they formed the backbone of the Spartan economic system of inheritance and marriage dowry and they were relied upon to carry out their primary tasks. responsibility for producing Spartan warrior sons. These major economic systems affected the distribution of wealth among Spartan citizens, particularly among the Spartan elite class. Spartan women led completely different lives than women in most other ancient Greek cities, as they were relied upon to maintain Spartan social systems. In a society where the state was more involved in family life, women enjoyed freedom of movement and were allowed to communicate with men who were not their husbands. Women had domestic responsibilities, including maintaining homes and farms, when men were on campaign, while typical Greek female responsibilities, such as weaving, were delegated to slaves. Girls were raised like Spartan boys, as they were required to undergo physical training to ensure their success in fulfilling their most important role in society, that of procreation. The few primary sources on Sparta and Spartan women, namely Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus, and Xenophon, were from historians who lived after ancient Sparta's prominence; therefore, facts regarding women's influence in social, economic and political issues must be carefully interpreted and analyzed with the help of secondary sources. In his Politics, Aristotle presents three defects of the Spartan system, the constant threat of a helot uprising, the nature of inheritance and the condition of women. Like other Greek women, Spartan wives' primary responsibility was fertility and childbirth. The average age of a Spartan wife was between 1...... middle of paper ...... had more opportunities to exert political influence.BibliographyPlutarch. Plutarch Moralia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976. Herodotus. The Stories. New York: Anchor Books, 2009. Moore, J. M. Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983. Powell, Anton. Classical Sparta: the techniques behind its success. London: Routledge, 1989. Hodkinson, Stephen, ed. Sparta: comparative approaches. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2009. Fantham, Elaine, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H. Alan Shapiro. Women in the classical world. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Maureen B. Fant. The lives of women in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005. Hooker, F. T. The Ancient Spartans. Toronto: JM Dent & Fils Ltd., 1980.