In Kleisthenic Athens the possible scope for the personal becoming the political was severely cut back. And not the least consequence of this was the disappearance of women from political consideration. For although women had had formal powers in no archaic Greek community that we know of, their informal political importance had been very significant. Athens became the place in the Greek world least generous with the rights it afforded to women, allowing them only the most restricted property rights and insisting that in lawcourts they should be represented by a man. More than ever before, at Athens women’s roles came to be restricted to the religious sphere, but even in religion the new democracy increased the opportunities for involvement by men without altering the roles of women.