A very fine mummy - case of wood , painted , gilded and with encrustra tions of glass , was made , as the many inscriptions on it state , for Henout oudjebous , " musician of Amun : wife and mistress of the house of the scribe owes " steward ofthe lands of the temple of Aten ' ( 3.9 ) . This combination of titles , similar to many others of the time , indicates the role of women in the higher ranks of society , dividing their time between religious rituals and domestic affairs . To judge from her elaborate mummy - case Henout - oudjebou must have been fairly rich , probably with servants to perform the household tasks of preparing food , weaving linen , and so on , under her supervision . In scenes of everyday life on the walls of tombs such household chores , and also work on the land , are overseen by the deceased man with his wife (if she is hown) standing demurely behind him. Women are, in fact, greatly outnumbered by men in the decoration of tombs, most of which were constructed for men. They appear most frequently in funeral rites as mourners with conventional gestures of grief (3.10) and in banqueting scenes relatives or musicians, fully dressed or as dancing girls wearing only necklaces and girdles round their slender hips (3.4). (Nakedness indicated low social status.) In these paintings, married couples are always together, husbands in front of wives (3.6). In groups, the men and women are always separated. How closely these images corresponded to the realities of social life cannot be known. There can be little if any doubt, however, tliat ancient Egypt was malc-dominated; only men were literate and qualified for the bureaucracy. Yet religious beliefs about the interdependence of the male and female principles were to some extent reflected in everyday lilc Women of all classes could inherit and own private property, for instance. In this respect, at least, they enjoycd greater autonomy in ancient Egypt than in any other early civilization.