Why have women been under men since the beginning of time?

you obviously don't know any of the women in my family

Women's rights have varied very much in different countries and different time periods.

However, it is worth remembering that the majority of men in most societies have also had very restricted rights.

For example much is always made of the fact that women did not have the vote in most countries untilt he 20th century, but in most countries only a small minority of men were able to vote until quite recently. For example, at the time of the American Revolutionary War, only about one man in 20 had the vote in the UK (which made all that talk about 'no taxation without representation' completely baffling to the British government).

While it is impossible to say for sure how people lived in 'caveman times' it is reasonable to assume that their way of life was much like surviving hunter-gatherer societies today. That is, men generally hunt while women gather (roots, nuts, berries, eggs, molluscs etc). Tribal leaders are generally men. It appears that men are more predisposed than women to seek out leadership roles and to attain dominant positions.

This is the reason why you will generally find leadership roles filled mainly by men in every society, including modern societies, no matter how much we strive for perfect equality.

For every king there was a queen and women have always been in charge of domestic things. I think you are just talking about women who were not nobles and were not focussed on family life. These women probably didn't exist much before about 500 years ago.

since i've already written things related this quite a few, so i'd just give the links.

i guess it's about this:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak.lA...

at first sight, men and women might be unequal in skills and position, but we are in fact supposedly equal in value. "equal in value" like the example in here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlyzO...

the prob is just that, men always misused their qualities and position to win that **** ego. but hey, women strikes back through feminism, serve the men right.

the thing is that, don't be so worried. men can't live without us, so we are already equal by nature.

deal with it. we women live a much painful and harder life than men(especially with all the "being a woman" dilemma, social pressures and inferiorities isssues that men don't have to face). and don't worry, it's not coz we suck, but because only stronger ones would be given harder life. like the best answer in here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvvkG...

although its not always the case, men were aften seen as being better then women becasue men were physically stronger, for most of our history physical strength was more importent then intellect as we had to hunt, but now we have technology, so physical strenght has become far less importent, thats why in advanced countries now women are seen with equality

its just that simple, physical strenght, dont listen to those people who over complicate it with complex physiological answers

That's the most comfortable position for both. Men being under women is good sometimes too, though.

Because women were always considered to be baby making machines who were fit for nothing other than housework and were thought to have no intellectual ability to perform any kind of work which men could do.

Its all really unfiar though. Feminists (NOT extreme ones) recognise this and thus have brought women a lot further today

well, it hasn't always been so. if you're going from like cave man time etc. then there weren't really rights. moving more recently. some of the religions (the "pagan" ones) before christianity came about were matriarchal and women ran the show with men following the lead.

with religion, men are the ones in charge because they believe that it is their devine right. women have had rights but not as many as they had previously to the church. (i'm not bashing the church, this is just my understanding of things). so, with a patriarchal structure like the church and society being based off of religion for so long, women's rights took a back seat. thats why, in the salem witch trials, women who showed intelligence were burned at the stake. knowledgable women were to be feared and subsequently were killed. but really, sayings like "behind every great man is a great woman" show that there is some recognition of the role women play in the world.

to answer your question though in a direct way. in hunter gatherer societies, men did the hunting because of a couple reasons. a.) men are typically stronger. b.) women are the ones who can reproduce and as such are to be protected. you can murder every single man but one and he, with the rest of the women, can repopulate a society. women lost their rights in some instances because of the recognitiobn that life couldn't go on without the sexual role they can play. in hunter gatherer societies however, it might not have been that women had no rights. it could be that women were in control of things and we just perceived that men were.

And, the church, being the dominant institution in western society is patriarchal and deplored women having rights and intelligence hence women having fewer rights then men.

hope that answered it.

They may have been under men, but this also led to men having downsides to. Women were not drafted into fight, and weren't ussualyl the breadmakers. Both of these roles were just as, if more, life threatening than being a mother.

However to answer your question, women's skills were not thought of as being of as much importance than men''s. Think about it from a man's point of view.

"I spent 4 days and 4 nights hunting for food to feed YOU. You gathered some fruits and nuts. All you do is raise the kids."

As unfair as that is, it does seem, from the male's point of view, that the women has it easy. Add onto that religion, and then wars (women's roles being viewed of even less importance when men go off and die in warfare) and women using "womanly wiles" to get men to do what they want.

Both sexes had it bad. Whilst women had less rights, they weren't drafted into wars. And also for a long long time men had very few rights as well.

The quietly deceptive power wielded by women since the dawn of time has obviously escaped even your grasp.

Because they have born children, and had to care for those children. And religion has encouraged the idea that women are inferior.