Why Are There More Male-Dominated Societies Than Female Dominated Societies?

Question

Throughout world history, the number of male-dominated societies exceeds the number of female-dominated societies. Any reason for this?

Answer 1

In general the male of the species is stronger, at least in human's. And if you go far enough back stronger meant in control. As time went on it became less of a deciding factor, but it was still there. Add to that the thousands of years of male dominance and it becomes hard to reach equality.

That's one thing I personally find irritating about some women's rights groups. They just want it all, and do not take into consideration that it wasn't that long ago that women could not vote or own property. There's been huge progress in a fairly short span of time. Be happy for the improvement while you push for the rest instead of just complaining about what you don't have yet. Anyway, that's my rant.

Answer 2

Seems like you're going to have to prove that one existed before you can answer this question, see excerpt below:


Though many modern anthropologists and sociologists assert that there are no known examples of human matriarchies from any point in history, [2][3][4][5][6][7] there is no consensus about this question. Encyclopædia Britannica lists matriarchy as a "hypothetical social system".[8], yet some examples of matrifocal societies are listed in "Existing matrifocal societies" section of this article. The Britannica article goes on to note, "The view of matriarchy as constituting a stage of cultural development is now generally discredited. Furthermore, the consensus among modern anthropologists and sociologists is that a strictly matriarchal society never existed."[9] For more information see the appendix Patriarchies in dispute

Answer 3

Because men are physically stronger than women. If women rape men, they they can expect to get raped back in retaliation. This is what makes men the dominant, superior sex. And also, in many societies, male babies are kept alive to grow up while female babies are aborted or they die of diseases. Female babies are cursed while male babies are blessed.

Answer 4

Its called survival. Obviously they made the right choises. Why is it that women always have to question centuries upon centuries of learning how to survive and to survive as best you can.

I would actually like to be here on earth when one day a meteor rains down on earth and puts us back 1000s of years from agriculture and technology. It would be good to see what happens.

What would happen is the women would rely on the men to hunt and gather and the women would stay in their safe little huts and did the cooking and bringing up the off spring.

We would then progress as a race to agriculture and technology and the women would want to change centuries of survival and learning within a few years and cause this caos we call society again.

Answer 5

Well, that’s nature you-- men are the dominant sex.The hierarchy of Men -> Women -> Child is only natural, reflects basic reality and has been the foundation of human civilization since the beginning of recorded history, as it is the only way for societies to function properly and stay alive. That’s nature, and can’t be changed.

Today’s Western society, though, (in the last 40 or so years) has attempted to change this to Women -> Child -> Man and look at the result: it’s messed up our once great society.

On a side note, Western civilization will continue to crumble, insofar as something drastic happens which usurps the present paradigm (or it will just be the collapse of the West).

Answer 6

Because men are the ones who have regularly brought home the wooly mammoth burgers for most of human history! The one who controls the food supply rules the society!

Answer 7

There is no proven source of gender roles and sexism.

Some will say it developed naturally during the hunting/gathering days. Others will say that society was egalitarian up until the time that organized religion started. Did religion create sexism or just reflect an already existing way of life? There is no proof either way.

Regardless if religion created or reflected sexism, it is abundantly clear via anthropology and writings that religious laws were created which enforced the social enslavement of females. Religious law was the only law in those days. This is true in both the pagan societies and the earliest Judeo ones.

Why didn't women fight back? Sort of why many Germans didn't protest the Holocaust. By the time they realized the horrific goings on, it was too late for them to stand up without getting their own heads blown off for doing so.

Fortunately for us women today, there were a few women in the past hundred years or so who were willing to stick their heads up and fight for the right of girls to be educated, for women to vote and own their own property, and so on.

Yet, even now in 2007, women who stick their heads up too far risk getting them blown off, sometimes literally (ie Taliban and other fundamentalist societies), but usually socially. You see it evidenced here, in YA, by both males and females who decry and rally up against women who write about equal opportunities. Happens in real life, too.

The inevitable is happening. As girls were allowed to become educated, and women allowed to vote and own property, and women started having careers (not just working), slowly but surely, there are more and more women gaining the necessary knowledge and experience to hold high positions in government and business. Heck, we may even have a female President of the USA a year and a half from now. The inevitable is happening because of the brave few who risked sticking their heads up a hundred years or so ago.

Answer 8

Yes for years women weren't thought to be as smart as men. There fore women weren't invited to participate in the decision making that ruled the societies. Women only got the Vote in the last 100 years, in fact it hasn't been a hundred years yet. Women weren't given the same access to education that men were until the last about 150 years. So most women couldn't do more than read and write on about the 6 to 8 grade reading level. It was most men who went on to high school and college. In the English upper classes the boys went on to Oxford or Cambridge and the girls got married when they entered society at the age of 18. Until than they were taught at home by governesses who them selves didn't have great educations. In America the upper classes pretty much followed English society and the girls would enter society at the age of 18 where they were expected to find a husband. This is also the reason that most women married men older than they were, because the young men were in college or were just entering society and given a few years to sow their wild oats before settling down and getting married.

Answer 9

Because women are busy getting pregnant and holin babeees.

Answer 10

In a hands-down fight, men still prevail over women who can get injured more.