The End Of A Woman's Right To Choose. How did we lose? T.R.A.P.

[haele]

54. Most of the push is from the religious right. Women will be pushed into marriage for relevance.

It's partially economic and mostly political. You can't rule over a "kingdom" successfully if you have a high number of recognized citizens that aren't effectively employed.

If women are pretty much relegated back to the "home front" because of risks inherent in their reproductive system for up to half their adult life, their rights as citizens can be easily be legally linked to some form of family or spousal patronage that would be required to support them while they were bearing and raising children.

Historically, "rulers" that oversaw that sort of legal status for women didn't feel the need to worry about more than half their population - only needed to worry about the half that legally "counted". It's an easy political out - much easier to focus on material gains for a relatively few men to "support their families" instead of social gains - income equality, or education, or health and environmental standards - that way.

Priest-Kings and other hierarchal based organizations are especially prone to taking the easy, short-term political options - and the fewer legal citizens who can call them out, the better. So relegating women to second-class dependent status along with children, disabled, and elderly - and potentially bringing back indentured servitude/prison slavery to "take care" of any excess male population - is the most efficient way for a Priest-King to gain and retain power.

Haele