Women in ancient Greece were first and foremost, baby-makers, both in Sparta and in Athens.

Sparta was a very military driven state, one of the reasons being because the population was split in to three groups: Citizens, who held political power; perioikoi, free people who had no political right; and helots who were state owned serfs. The citizens were heavily outnumbered by the helots, (there were 7 or 8 helots for every citizen) so rebellion was a constant threat, especially since helots lived such a drastically different life to citizens. Because of this threat, the ‘upper classes’ prided themselves on being strong and ready for war at all times.

The Spartans believed the healthier the woman, the better she would be at bearing children and the healthier her offspring would be. From birth they were fed the same and educated the same as their male siblings, making them stronger, healthier and smarter than their Athenian counterparts. Athletics were just as important for girls as boys and they would regularly train and compete in events such as javelin, discus, running and possibly even chariot racing, as was literacy and numeracy, making Spartan women some of the smartest women, possibly even people in the ancient world. Because they were educated and had a lot of freedom socially, they gained a reputation for speaking their minds, something that was frowned upon in other Ancient Greek city-states.

Women in Sparta would usually get married at around the age of 18 to a man who was in his mid-20s, however since Spartan men lived in the barracks with other men until they were thirty (at which point they were allowed to sleep at home), spouses would rarely see each other. Marriage was forbidden until a woman was at least in her late teens to ensure she was healthy enough to bear children, as the Spartans recognised that an early pregnancy can cause lasting health effects for both mother and child. There was also a culture of ‘Wife-sharing’, especially among couples with a larger age difference. Older men would often let younger, fitter men impregnate their younger, fitter wives in order to create fit, healthy offspring. This was encouraged as the Spartan population was hard to maintain due to the fact that men’s lives were constantly being lost at war, and also because new-born babies were often left to die if they looked weak or sickly.

Because most of the male population was constantly at war, women controlled pretty much everything that wasn’t military related. This includes the properties of their husbands and themselves. At one point, when the male population had dropped significantly, women were estimated to have owned 30-40% of the land in Sparta. Women could also become the heiress of their father’s wealth without marrying a paternal relative if she had no male siblings. If she did have male siblings, she would inherit half of what they did. Spartan women were considerably richer than Athenian women. Also unlike other Grecian states, women didn’t have to spend most of their lives caring for children, since boys were raised and educated by junior divisions of the military from the age of 7.

On the other hand, the situation for women in Athens was very different. They weren’t formally educated and athleticism in women was deemed unimportant. Girls were married as young as 12 to men as old as 30 who were chosen for her by her father, and they would soon be trying for an heir or a few. Women were expected to produce at least two healthy children but more were encouraged to make up for the number of military deaths and the high infant mortality rate. Athenian women would spend most of their life inside taking care of children as, according to the men of the time, they had little reason to go outside. Women didn’t work unless they worked as a prostitute, which was legal but frowned upon. Not only were they denied many social freedoms but they were also denied political freedoms, such as not being allowed in to law courts, just like the slaves of the time. The Athenian woman would have a guardian (kyrios) who protected her but also acted on her behalf and represented her when she wanted to contact anyone outside of Athens, or even sometimes in Athens in certain situations. A woman’s guardian also technically owned everything she possessed. For example, the Kyrios would own a personal slave, the woman would own the use of a personal slave. There were aso many rules in place effectively preventing women from inheriting anything other than her dowry from family members.

As with most things, it is important to look at source material to determine whether there was a bias or not. Most if not all of the information we have regarding women in ancient Greece comes from pieces written by Athenian philosophers. Because the Athenians had a very low opinion of women, a lot of information about women talks about them in a degrading way. This is especially the case when it comes to Spartan women. The Spartans were enemies of the Athenians so a lot of information written about Spartan women was very negative as it was one of the easiest ways to insult Sparta as a whole, and because Spartans were more interested in the military than anything else, they wrote very few records on how they lived. I hope I’ve done a reasonable job of being as factual as possible.

TL;DR- Spartan women were treated like humans and had many of the same rights as men, Athenian women had very few rights and were only really seen as baby makers and child carers.

A great source to start with is the volume Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Alexander the Great by Dillon and Garland link. Chapter 4 is "Women, Sexuality and the Family" and deals with this topic in general in ancient Greece. Chapter 6 is all about Sparta. This book gives you (in translation) actual texts and documents from Greek authors as evidence. I use it extensively when I teach Greek history/culture.