scontent."2
Thus, most general theories of societal development seem to have assumed that the domination of the male was both inevitable and desirable. The family, especially in the Judeo Christian tradition, became the central focus of societal development. Within this model, the women formed the basis of the household by rearing the children, and providing food, clothing, and work for the male. The male of authority, however, became the predominate sphere of rule and political action, with matriarchy only occasionally surfacing, and then only as a somewhat aberrant form of governmental organization.3
2 Vern L. Bullough, et.al., The Subordinated Sex, (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1988), 1.
3 See the introductory material in Elsie Boulding, The Underside of History A View of Women through Time, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1976).
Societies, though, pass through a series of differing stages in which social development either changes or reverts to another form. For instance, just as scientific thought undergoes dramatic shifts in perceptions as more knowledge is collected, so too do societies move forward in social development.4 This has particular importance in the study of the female role within society since it may very well be the growth and change of attitudes toward women than impact on this shift in developmental stance.
Others see that the role of women in society changed as capitalism took hold after the 17th century. As the economic life of society took on greater complexities in the West, the monogamous unit called a family became both a social and an economic unit. In other societies, however, the economic impetus remained underdeveloped for women. In many eastern societies, for instance, society accepts the need for a man to have multiple wives. This is primarily due to the connection between religion and demographic determiners.5 In the same light, then, many of the social theories of ...