Feminism

Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to domestic duty, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women were not allowed to own property, to study, or to participate in public life. At the end of the 19th century in France, they were still made to cover their heads in public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still had the right to sell his wife. Even as late as the early 20th century, women in the United States, as in Europe, could neither vote nor be politicians. Women were prevented from doing business without a male representative, be it father, brother, husband, legal agent, or even son. Married women could not exercise control over their own children without the permission of their husbands. Women had little or no access to education and were barred from most professions. In some parts of the world, such restrictions on women continue today.
There is little evidence of early organized protest against such injustice. In the 3rd century BC, Roman women filled the Capitoline Hill and blocked every entrance to the Forum when politician Marcus Porcius Cato resisted attempts to change laws limiting women’s use of expensive goods. “If they are victorious now, what will they not attempt?” Cato cried. “As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors.” This was an exception in history as in most recorded history only isolated voices spoke out about the ill treatment of women.

Vocabulary