Sparta was a society built entirely around military life.

Spartan citizen males were taken at the age of seven to be trained as warriors. They were expected to spend their time in miltary training, and live in communal barracks. meanwhile their farms were run by the woman and the slaves. In Athens, all citizen males were expected to do two years military training from the age of eighteen, and they were expected to be ready to go to war at any time, but they were not entirely devoted to miltiary purposes. Athens, like Sparta, was a slave-based economy, 50% of the population were slaves. Athens was a democracy, male citizens would gather in an assembley where they would elect officials, and vote on various issues. Sparta had two kings, both hereditary, but there were five ephors, elected by the citizen assembley, who oversaw and had veto power over the kings, so it was an interesting mixture of oligarchy and democracy. In Athens, women would generally marry at quite an early age, around twelve to fourteen. They were expected to stay at home most of the time, and busy themselves spinning and weaving, and supervising the slaves. Women of the lower classes would go out and about more, as they would have to work for a living, and would not have slaves to do things like fetching water etc. Women took no part in political life, but they did participate fully in religious life, taking part in festivals, joining the msytery cults etc. In Sparta, women were expected to exercise and keep fit like men, so that they would bear healthy children. They generally married later than Athenian women, at around eighteen. The women were mostly left to run things while the men were away, which gave them more freedom on the whole than Athenian women had. The arts were more important in Athens than they were in Sparta. Athens produced many notable philosophers, writers, mathematicians, etc, whereas in Sparta military glory was everything. Even their poets were martial. Early Sparta produced some beautiful pottery and bronzes, but unlike Athens they had no coinage, they used iron spits several feet long for money.

Women, Slaves, and other non-citizens:

Athens: In Athens non citizens which included women and slaves had few rights. Some things women could not do would be to hold government positions, and own property in any way. Usually women in Athens stayed at home and did housework along with supervising slaves. A few women could become priestesses but that was about as good and a woman could get. Slaves lived various different lives in Athens. Some slaves were trained as craftsmen while others worked in factories or farms. A few slaves worked as clerks, and the unluckiest had to work in silver mines. People could become slaves by being born into slavery, being prisoners of war, or having to sell themselves into slavery due to farm debts.

Sparta: In Sparta non-citizens were women, slaves (called the helots), and Perioikoi( free men, usually foreigners). Spartan women were very different from women in other parts of Greece as they received tough physical training. This was because the women were expected to look after their husbands property during times of war, along with defending her husbands property against invaders or a slave revolt. They also did not wear jewelry or perfume since this could be seen as corrupting the Spartan government. Another way Spartan women differed from women from the other city states was that the Spartan women had many rights women from other city states did not have. The Spartan women could own property, the women could speak with their husband friends and they could even marry another man if their husbands had been away at war for too long. Spartan slaves, called helots did all the farming for the Spartans. Some rights the helots had was that they could choose who they married, they could sell extra crops after filling their quota, and if the helot saved up enough money from selling extra crops they could buy their freedom. However even with these rights a helots life was not pleasant. Because the helots outnumbered the Spartans 20-1 the Spartans feared the helots would revolt against them one day so the Spartans treated the helots harshly. Also once a year the Spartans declared war on the helots and freely killed them. This was so the helots would be scared of the Spartans and wouldn't rebel. The final non citizen class in Sparta was the periokoi who were free men but noncitizens. The periokoi might serve in the army, but they could not hold government posts. The perioikoi primarily manufactured goods for the Spartans including cloaks, shoes, weapons, and pottery. The periokoi also conducted some of Spartas trade.