Athens, as you might know, went though many political stages and one including democracy while Sparta was an oligarchy. Now, everyone knows that Democracy is way better than oligarchy.
In athens, women had much more rights than in Sparta. Also, their babies weren't left to die if they were not strong enough.
Athens wasn't so concentrated on war like Sparta was, they actually had a 'life'. Spartan citizens were basically only taught to fight. While Athenian citizens had past-times and were very creative in their arts. Sparta didn't really have any arts since they were so preoccupied with war.
