The Rights of Women in Incan Society

The Rights of Women in Incan Society

The rights of women in the Incan Empire are particularly interesting. I will be investigating the Incan women rights in society as it pertains to marriage, divorce, business, and property. The Incan woman’s role in society was not taken lightly contrary to European women’s roles. Aside from cooking, cleaning, caring for the children and weaving, their role encompassed more of a complementary role along side the Incan man.

Incan women were generally paired with a nobleman or military commanders and married at the age of 16, (Tim McGuinness, 2008). The more attractive girls became concubines for the Inca Emperor. Some girls who matched the ideal mold of Incan beauty were offered as sacrifices to the sun god while others were confined to one of the convents for life. Those who married could not choose their husbands but were paired with a nobleman or military commander. They served a complementary role to their husbands, often working side by side with them in the fields sowing and harvesting the crops. While the husband plowed the land, their wives would sow the seeds. It was believed women guaranteed a successful crop since they were the bearers of life, (Tim McGuinness, 2008). Trial marriages were standard within the Inca society. In this type of arrangement, the man and woman would consent to marriage for a short period of time – a few years. At its conclusion, the woman could go home to her parents if she desired or the man could send her home if he deemed he union unfit. Once the marriage was considered final, the couple could only divorce if the woman was childless, (D’Altroy, 2002).

Inca woman acquired property through ancestry. They believed in parallel descent, which allowed property to be passed from mother to daughter according to succession, (Schwartz, 2001).

Inca women never chose their professions for their professions where chose for them as mentioned earlier. Women were either married off to...