Maori had always been like that pre-British influence. They had had female chiefs, homosexuality was fine, and they accepted identifying as the other gender. It was only when the brits came stated that it was punishable that it was all affected.

I had this put to me once but didn't know how to react to it. Their argument was that 'people only want to suppress something they fear'. I'm not good at debating points unfortunately.

I think it's a psycological issue (and some hormone stuff. testosterone makes you more aggressive). In nomad societies, both men and women need to work together to survive, while men are rather useless in settler societies. Women can farm, women can take care of animals, women give life. And men who have inferiority-issues tend to develop a hate toward women (just have a look around "gamer" networks throughout the internet)....

Don't quote me on this as I'm no Historian but I believe there have been some ancient well developed cultures that were matriarchal rather than patriarchal (all long dead and gone to dust now). But presumably they were either very egalitarian, or more likely knowing human nature, discriminatory towards men.

Blame religion for a lot of that.

Good question one that I don't have a good answer to, maybe the war like nature of how most fledgling countries were formed meant that males were valued more? If a tribe sort to expand territory I suppose it would involve demonising the enemy which would usually result in death to captured males and raping or forced marriage(not much different) of the women I guess it's hard to value women when they're treated as a commodity. Most countries would have started as a lose collection of peoples that were unified in some such way.

Wars, I assume. Wars both discourage equality (look at the role of the mother in Nazi Germany, where they were seen as cannon fodder factories) and encourage scientific research (need to find better weapons, going to finance great scientific projects, eg. the nuclear bomb). The western world just seems to be a very aggressive folk. I think no one is as cold-blooded as us when it comes to personal gain. Just look how we exploit so many countries in the world just to be able to consume more and more and MORE... Hey, that actually sounds pretty logical. I'm proud of my philosophical reasoning ;)

Yes, it's a myth that traditionally women were treated as inferior. All known hunter-gatherer societies are egalitarian. The truth is that it is getting worse and worse for women in many areas, not better.

Archeologists found some stuff in china that shows that discriminating uterus-owners started when people began to settle and farm. Also today, nomadic societies don't have the same amount of discrimination towards women as settlers' societies.

It's ultimately a power struggle IMO. The bio imperative and the manhood thing. If guys would lay off the "real man" s**t with other guys I think we on team XX wouldn't have so much unearned bullcrap to wade through. We are far from epic as to how we treat men on the whole but we have locker room mentality in the mix too. Women are savage but men...man.

Maybe because up to then, all but one visits by men-only crews have not ended well for them, so seeing a woman triggered the idea that maybe this time it was a different type of visit? I don't think they are very aggressive, just very protective (and, as history has shown, with good reason)

religion impose an idea of punish women because eve tempted Adam. catholic religion ,Muslim and christian all "recommend" to impose control over women, good religious women are the ones who obey their father,brother and husband. even when there's not evidence of jesus ever said anything about punish women so man created religion to their convenience. later they created laws to their convenience. we women one way of another get punish just because we are women.

Yea, I think they worded it poorly. They are closer to what we would consider civilized. Still it gives one pause.

I'd say Aristotle.

My guess would be physiology. I lifted weights for a while and learned that it's just faster/easier for men to build & keep muscle. Between that and the fact of childbirth - where the woman is first hampered by the pregnancy and then (especially before modern advances) needed to stay near the baby to feed it - men would have naturally tended to be the ones out hunting instead of raising children, and therefore the ones with power.

Very modestly I will give you my answer, based on paleontology (I did not invent it, I just summarize What I have read about the topic). In paleolithic societies, e.i. loosely organized groups of hunters/gatherers, the female was likened to the Goddess of Fertility; the neolithic era which followed is characterized by the start of agriculture, domesticating animals, producing the food they needed instead of finding it here and there. It is believed that at this stage, man realized how babies or young animals were produced, which gave them a completely different point of view of the role of woman: she wasn't anymore the goddess who creates life out of nothing, she was just seen as a vessel to receive the male seed, and into this production system which valued physical force, she was seen as weak and submissive. Add to it the civilizations of The Book (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which emphasize th woman's lower statute, and you get what we know now.

Our current man made religions (xtians, muslims, Jews, etc) are the cause of the majority of discrimination and hatred towards women. Women used to be seen as 1/2 and men 1/2, each bringing their own strengths/abilities. Women owned land, held positions of power, and had the same rights as men. Greedy, jealous, egotistical men, having less than the women they saw as beneath them did, needed a way to gain money, power, and control. Copying from prior gods/goddesses, they settled on a monotheistic one in which only men could lead you to "paradise", and women were the cause of all misfortune, evil, and everything else they didn't like. They claimed their "god" gave them control over everything on earth, including women, who were to be subservient to men. These fairytales have been forced upon us since birth ever since, brainwashing men into thinking they're superior and women were created for them to do with as they please. We still see "love, honor & OBEY" in the vows of woman only!!