being able to give birth and raise children is not on equal footing is not the same as having systemic political power. having some minute level of influence over their husbands is not significant power either. I am not sure to what power you are referring. Women weren't allowed to own property or credit or vote until relatively incredibly recently; women in the workforce is a fairly new thing in history too. Additionally, women haven't even had bodily autonomy for long -- spousal rape was not illegal until the 90s, and of course you have honor killings, and just take a look at the middle east.
Dkk
18:08
@KnowledgeableRitzyWasp: yeah they fought for responsibility not power.
Dkk
18:08
It was a bad fight.
soap
18:08
What "power" are you referring to?
triplethread
18:08
Dk they literally burned women in Oregon that had cuck husbands or no husbands
windyMagician
18:08
they proposed a tax on single women in Alaska back in the day
Dkk
18:09
@triplethread: yeah other women convincing men that other women are bad? Sounds real patriarchal to me.
Dkk
18:09
Power is hard to define from a political perspective but most would call it influence. If you want to think of it as influence you can.
i think a big disconnect for a lot of men is not feeling like they have power in their own life. so they are not empathetic for the position women are in. but just because you don’t feel much better doesn’t mean they don’t objectively have it worse
Dkk
18:11
@windyMagician: thats not necessarily more power. That could be more responsibility and agency. It really is neutral though.
I think that the position dk is arguing for vis a vis history and power dynamics is pretty unsustainable, but is this closer to what you’re talking about dk:
I gotta go work a shift, but I will conclude by saying that men had the power: a woman *could* ask her husband to vote for X or make Y decision, but he didn't have to obey and in fact, because women couldn't own property and the legal system prevented them from being self-sufficient, their words meant little. Ultimately, it was up to what he wanted; she didn't have other alternatives.