Genna G’s Reviews > From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 2 > Status Update

superiority isolates and constricts

Girls concerned with guarding their hymens cannot move around freely in a world where men treat women as prey.

!!! Is this where the term "rule of thumb" comes from?!
The law placed no restraints on men's cruelty and limited only the degree of abuse. Wife beating was legal if a man used a switch no thicker than his thumb (the "rule of thumb").

The witch craze illustrates a pattern in societies that try to order themselves rigidly, allowing no foreign element to disturb their "purity." With no outlet for their own disruptive emotions, for unexpressed or unconscious rebellion, they seek it in women or in some other scorned group blacks, Jews, or an ethnic minority.

Free female sexuality is the most serious threat to patriarchy (which always
makes female adultery a crime) because it defies male ownership of women's bodies. Females acting free, sexually, are insubordinate, indifferent to male heirs' legitimacy and the perpetuation of male-dominated lineages.

Both sides agreed on one premise: if women were included in the
social and political structure, their influence would change society's value system. Feminists still use this argument and are still opposed by those who do not want society changed.

[...]allowed some women to handle minor problems like eye infections, skin diseases, or boils, so long as they charged low fees and didn't advertise. But even this level of activity distressed male physicians, who claimed that female practitioners damaged the status of their profession. Some men argued that god had not given women such talents, so women who practiced medicine must have learned it from the devil.

Interesting that these are still many of the items and trades that are still "acceptable" for women today.