<P> With increased interest in women's history by classical scholars, a number of related disciplines have also become more significant . Classicists have become more interested in the family since the Second World War, with W.K. Lacey's 1968 The Family in Classical Greece particularly influential . The history of childhood emerged as a sub-discipline of history during the 1960s, and other disciplines such as the study of ancient medicine have been influenced by feminist approaches to the classics . </P> <P> Infant mortality was common in classical Athens, with perhaps 25 percent of children dying at or soon after birth . In addition to the natural risks of childbirth, the ancient Athenians practiced infanticide; according to Sarah Pomeroy, girls were more likely to be killed than boys . Donald Engels has argued that a high rate of female infanticide was "demographically impossible", although scholars have since largely dismissed this argument . Although scholars have tried to determine the rate of female infanticide, Cynthia Patterson rejects this approach as asking the wrong questions; Patterson suggests that scholars should instead consider the social importance and impact of the practice . </P> <P> Janet Burnett Grossman writes that girls appear to be commemorated about as frequently as boys on surviving Attic gravestones, although previous scholars suggested that boys were commemorated up to twice as often . If they survived, Athenian children were named in a ceremony (the dekate) ten days after birth . Other Athenian ceremonies celebrating childbirth (at five, seven, and forty days after birth) were also observed . Later rites of passage were apparently more common and elaborate for boys than for girls . </P> <P> Classical Athenian girls probably reached menarche at about age fourteen, when they would have married . Girls who died before marriage were mourned for their failure to reach maturity . Memorial vases for dead girls in classical Athens often portrayed them dressed as brides, and were sometimes shaped like loutrophoroi (vases which held water used to bathe before the wedding day). </P>

What was life like for an athenian woman