The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir — Read

The evolution of the feminine condition was not a continuous process. With the great invasions, all of civilization is put into question. Roman law itself is under the influence of a new ideology, Christianity; and in the centuries that follow, barbarians impose their laws. The economic, social, and political situation is overturned: and women's situation suffers the consequences.

Christian ideology played no little role in women's oppression. Without a doubt, there is a breath of charity in the Gospels that spread to women as well as to lepers; poor people, slaves, and women are the ones who adhere most passionately to the new law. In the very early days of Christianity, women who submitted to the yoke of the Church were relatively respected; they testified along with men as martyrs; but they could nonetheless worship only in secondary roles; deaconesses were authorized only to do lay work: caring for the sick or helping the poor. And although marriage is considered an institution demanding mutual fidelity, it seems clear that the wife must be totally subordinate to the husband: through Saint Paul the fiercely antifeminist Jewish tradition is affirmed. Saint Paul commands self-effacement and reserve from women; he bases the principle of subordination of women to man on the Old and New Testaments. "The man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man"; and "Neither was man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. " And elsewhere: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. " In a religion where the flesh is cursed, the woman becomes the devil's most fearsome temptation. Tertullian writes: "Woman! You are the devil's gateway. You have convinced the one the devil did not dare to confront directly. It is your fault that God's Son had to die. You should always dress in mourning and rags. " Saint Ambrose: "Adam was led to sin by Eve and not Eve by Adam. It is right and just that he whom she led into sin, she shall receive as master. " And Saint John Chrysostom: "Of all the wild animals, none can be found as harmful as woman. " When canon law is written in the fourth century, marriage is treated as a concession to human failings, incompatible with Christian perfection. "Take up the hatchet and cut the roots of the sterile tree of marriage," writes Saint Jerome. In the time of Gregory VI, when celibacy was imposed on priests, woman's dangerous character was more harshly asserted: all the Fathers of the Church proclaim her wretchedness. Saint Thomas will remain true to this tradition, declaring that woman is only an "occasional" and incomplete being, a sort of failed man. "Man is the head of woman just as Christ is the head of man," he writes. "It is a constant that woman is destined to live under the authority of man and has no authority of her own. " Thus, the only marriage regime canon law recognizes is by dowry, rendering woman helpless and powerless. Not only is she prohibited from male functions, but she is also barred from making court depositions, and her testimony holds no weight. The emperors are more or less under the influence of the Church Fathers; Justinian's legislation honors woman as spouse and mother but subjugates her to those functions; her helplessness is due not to her sex but to her situation within the family. Divorce is prohibited, and marriage has to be a public event; the mother has the same authority over her children as the father, and she has equal rights to their inheritance; if her husband dies, she becomes their legal tutor. The Velleian Senate decree is modified: from that time on she can intercede for the benefit of a third party; but she cannot contract for her husband; her dowry becomes inalienable; it is her children's patrimony, and she is forbidden to dispose of it.