Wherever there is reference to women, it is always in relation to the reproduction of the family, the responsibility of the oikos and their participation in land cultivation in case they belonged to poorer classes. The wife or daughter of an aristocrat or anyone else who had property were not allowed to work in the fields, since that disparaged and offended the owner of the oikos. Anything interesting that can be said about her role in the family's finances concerns dowry, which consisted of clothing, ornaments, household utensils, furniture and money (Plutarch, Life of Solon 20.1-5, Hipponax, extract 81 in Fowler, 1992).

In general, dowry functioned as a means of transferring and gathering property. In Athens, specifically, dowry was obligatory and was particularly burdensome for poor people, given the fact that finding a husband was a question of competition. That is why Solon's legislation abolished the institution of dowry. However, the information that we have about dowry in Archaic Athens is minimal. That is the reason why, scholars tend to adopt in principle the position of woman in the classical society for the Archaic period too. During that period the Athenian woman did not have control over her property, but was in effect epiproikos, that is she transferred it from her father to her husband. Generally, Athenian women were more confined than Spartan, Cretan or Boeotian women.