Doing Gender in Babylon: The Construction of Ideal Womanhood in Sumerian Literature from the Early 2nd Millennium BCE

In this paper, I argue that Sumerian literary disputations between male and female peers from the Old Babylonian period (2000–1600 BCE ) offer insights into the first attested conscious construction of gender and ideal womanhood. Through a detailed analysis of the sources, several of which are not yet widely accessible, I demonstrate that the texts advocate for a strictly binary, sexual division of labor. Conversely, social and behavioral norms were considered universal, and their observance was expected from men and women alike. Reading the sources through analytical lenses developed in Gender Studies, I reconstruct Old Babylonian views on doing gender and probe whether the texts – possibly without intending it – also contain keys for undoing it. The latter is partly contingent on ancient performance practices, which I discuss while situating the texts in their socio-historical context. I close with observations on authors and audiences, both ancient and modern.