This Should Get Your Dander Up

“Instructing a woman is like holding a sack of sand whose sides have split open.”

- Ankhsheshong, scribe. Late Period Ancient Egypt

“Neither wives of lords, nor widows, nor Assyrian women who go out on the street, may have their heads uncovered.....when they go out on the street alone, they must veil themselves.”

- Middle Assyrian Law, 1383-1000 B.C.E.

“A proper wife should be as obedient as a slave...The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities - a natural defectiveness.”

- Aristotle

“A woman...cultivates the skills required in the women’s quarters and has no ambition to manage affairs outside the house...She must follow the ‘three submissions.’ When she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son.”

- “The Mother of Mencius,” Waring States, 475-221 B.C.E, China

“Women, even though they are of full age, because of their levity of mind shall be under guardianship.”

- The Twelve Tables, Rome, 450 B.C.E.

“You must be like the heart in the body. You must not leave the home...You must be like embers in the hearth.”

- Advice given Aztec girls at ceremonies honoring their birth.

“Women are as different from men as earth from the heaven. She depends on the light of her husband to shine.” and “Woman’s virginity and chastity are more important than her life.”

- Neo-Confucian Sayings, China.

“If you have a son, you can say you have a descendant. But you cannot say thus, even if you have ten daughters.”

- Vietnamese proverb

“Even though you sleep intimately on the same bed and under the same cover with him, you must treat your husband as if he were your king.”

- Upper Class Confucian marriage manual, Vietnam

“There are only two places for a woman, the house and the grave”

- Pakistani proverb

“Women have long hair and a short mind.”

- Swedish proverb

“The best way to keep a woman is barefoot in the winter and pregnant in the summer”

- American proverb