Mothers were essentially the head of the households in Spartan society. Sons were taken from the house at age seven and put through agoge. Daughters also underwent public education, although girls stayed in their mother’s houses until they were married, around the age of eighteen, and would have developed an overwhelming bond with their mothers. Women were not expected to learn domestic duties like weaving and cleaning, as the estate’s helots would perform these tasks. Therefore, women were more preoccupied with maintaining their physical stature, bearing children, and supervising the helots who worked the land.
When the men weren’t stationed they were preoccupied with training and remained separated from their homes leaving the women to completely dominate the household.
Under the Spartan law, women who had died in child birth and men who died in serving their country both equally deserved the honor of having their names in-scripted on their gravestones.
Spartan women were highly encouraged to produce many children, preferably male, to increase Sparta's military population.
Spartan women were allowed to divorce their husbands without fear of losing their personal wealth. As equal citizens of the community, women could divorce and were not required to or discouraged from remarrying.
Female education is vague and rarely mentioned as in a formal class setting, presumably taking place in the home. It is at least documented that wealthier women wrote letters to their sons and it is therefore assumed that they could read and write.
In their youth, female Spartans ran around naked alongside the boys and competed in gymnastics, wrestling, foot and horse races, and other required physical trials, all in the public’s view. Women were also known to compete in the Olympics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4cwDFewytA
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