A very serious question for the men here at DU:

[stevenleser]

129. I think it it started as Roles, then became tradition and then became a way to retain power

I think since women bore and fed (via breast milk) the children, most primitive human cultures assigned them the role of staying at home and maintaining the home front and assigned the men the task of farming or hunting or gathering.

Eventually, that role became cemented into tradition and women became a defacto second class of human being. Men then began to enjoy the power that gave them and accumulated women as wives and concubines the way we now accumulated property. The women were sex slaves, free labor for the household, etc. With that kind of arrangement, men didnt want to give that up.

That's my first take anyway. Am interested in hearing other theories. I dont think the religious one works because I think the roles go back past biblical times.