Just as boys were bought up to become brave heroic fighters so were there women. Spartan women were the only women in Greece whose upbringing was prescribed by the state and who were educated at states expense. Unlike other Greek females who spent most of there time indoors and were given less food than the men, Spartan females exercised outside and were well nourished. Childbearing was there only social obligation. Like other Greek women  Spartan women new how to weave and like Spartan men they were also free from obligation to engage in any form of domestic or money making labor.

The educational system for girls was also organised according to there age classes. Girls were divided into categories of children, young girls, maidens who have reached puberty and married women. Hairstyles were also used to tell maidens from newly married women. Unlike many other adult women in other parts of Greece who wore there hair short.

Like everything else in there life, Spartans ascribed the customary upbringing of Spartan girls to Lycurgus. Just like the men Spartan females were expected to attend the public school, although for a shorter period of time than the boys. At school they were encouraged to engage in sports. And it was, incidentally, a Spartan who became the first woman to ever have an Olympic victory by entering a chariot at the races. First the girls were toughened up physically by making them run and wrestle, throw the discus and javelin. They believed that if there women were outside rather than couped up inside that their children in embryo form would make a strong start in life, while the women themselves would also bear their pregnancies with vigor and would meet the challenge of childbirth in a successful, relaxed way.Thereby then giving birth to not only healthy children but strong children whether they were male or female. It was only in Sparta that women had the freedom to participate in such things as athletic training along with the men.

Spartan women were well known for there relative freedom. Other Greeks on the other hand regarded it as scandalous that Spartan girls even exercised with boys and did so wearing minimal clothing.

Aristotle was convinced that Spartan women indulged in every kind of luxury and intemperance promoting greed and attendant degeneration of the Spartan ideal of equality among the male citizens. It was also Aristotle that complained that Spartan women enjoyed way to much freedom and power. Though it was not only Aristotle who thought this way about Spartan women but many other people from other parts of Greece had commented on the amount of freedom Spartan women had. Not only did Spartan women have point of view but they were not afraid to voice them in public, worse still many Greeks were shocked that their husbands actually listened to them. Aristotle also claimed that Spartan men were “ruled by their wives”. In a frequently quoted incident, the wife of King Leonidas was allegedly asked why Spartan women were the only women in Greece who “ruled” their husbands. Gorgo replied, “because we are the only women who give birth to men.” In other words, only men with the self-confidence to accept women as equals were men at all.