World patriarchy and the battle for Women’s
equality
The seated woman of Catalhoyuk – 8000 year
old (SW Turkey)
Status of women in the Ancient World
• The 1960’s discovery of the 8-10,000 year old ‘Mother Goddess’ of
Catalhoyuk inspired intellectuals to further a theory to explain the
status of women in the ancient world.
• Many archaeological discoveries proved that nearly all religions over
4000 years ago were based on Mother Earth and Mother Nature
principles built around female fertility and the ability to create life
• Once one God religions began to assert themselves (starting with
Judaism) they became male dominated and women were given
secondary status and even demonised!
The seated woman of Catalhoyuk
• Professor Hodder’s archaeology work has uncovered that over 8000 years
ago in what is now modern day Turkey true gender equality flourished.
• An examination of male and female skeletons have revealed that they had
the same diet, did the same jobs and spent the same amount of time
outdoors. They were also buried with the same status and possessions.
According to Prof Hodder a woman’s biology was not her fate!
• This is a very different story by the late c19 when the German theorist and
friend of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels argued that women became 2nd class
citizens from the moment that man began to build farms and claim private
property. According to Engels man claimed ownership over the soil,
animals and women leading to the “world historical defeat of the female
sex.”
Minoan Snake Goddess – female religious cult
– approx 3000 years old
Discovered in
Knossos Palace,
Crete in 1905 by
British
archaeologists
Women’s equality in Dark Ages Ireland
Brehon Laws – 600 AD
• The Brehon Law was a system well ahead of its time. It was all about
equality and democracy, and was based on a complex system of fines
instead of corporal punishment. It covered everything from matters of
commerce, crime, healthcare, the ownership of property to marital and
family law, and equal rights.
• women of Ireland enjoyed equal status in marriage with their husbands.
• She retained possession of all her own properties that she brought with
her to the marriage. She had the right to divorce him, if he did not fulfil his
marital obligations, and if she so, she was entitled to take with her all her
own possessions and half of their joint property, plus a portion for
damages.
• In 2015 Irish women are still campaigning for divorce and fertility rights!
The status of women in established national
and international religious institutions
State sanctioned misogyny: ‘Witchcraft’ phase
State/Church supported witch hunts
• The Misogyny Theory: The Witch Hunts embodied a social hostility
toward women. Allegedly the Church saw in witchcraft a source of
empowerment for women. Indeed, the ongoing subordination of
women, womens connection to folk-magic and healing, and changing
views of womens social and economic place in Early Modern Europe
were important factors in the hunts. The majority of accused and
executed were female, yet also old, living alone (whether widowed or
spinster), and poor.
• King James I of England (1603-1625) published works on the existence
of witches and the need to hunt, identify and punish them
Women’s Suffrage
Female legal/political emancipation
• Western Liberal democracies and Constitutional Monarchies (USA & UK) and
their global colonies (New Zealand) were among the first countries to grant the
vote to its women.
• Suffrage campaigners went to great lengths to achieve the vote including hunger
strikes, loss of life and imprisonment.
• Just as at the time of the early one male God religions, women’s biological
differences to men were promoted as legitimate reasons for preventing the
empowerment of women e.g. what they labelled as female
hysteria/menstruation. In other words to be born female was a life sentence of
pre-ordained social roles often interestingly enforced by older family females
(older sister, mother, auntie) who probably thought they were ‘doing the best
thing’ by crushing emancipation spirit. Perhaps to preserve family reputation,
perhaps themselves convinced by the hopelessness of young women’s aspirations
– need to accept patriarchal society or even a power dynamic issue among the
women of that family?