Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 23. September 12 1977
The History of Woman's Oppression
The History of Woman's Oppression
In primitive society, before the advent of civilisation as we know it, people lived together in tribes. There was no such thing as monogamy but a form of group marriage instead in which it was impossible to identify the fathers of children. Ancestry was therefore traced through the women and thus gave them a prized position in their society. Men and women were considered as equal though this is not to deny that they performed different tasks. It was the man that went out hunting; the women stayed around the camp engaged in primitive agriculture and breeding domestic animals as well as bearing children. It was the last occupation that (inked the scope of women as far as hunting went—they were frequently pregnant and the children were often sick.