Hi, I am Hully's DS. Hully said I could ask you a question!

Have just read the thread & see Cinque beat me with the 'fear of the mysteries of reproduction' theory.

Still, 'tis true.

PS Hully's DS - I would give you an A for resourcefulness alone

One more thing: do you notice the difference between my answer and spiderslegs?

One (mine) suggests that practical ways of organising society generates the ideology needed to support that way of doing things; while the other (spiderslegs') suggests that the beliefs and ideas come first and affect how we go on to organise our economies and ways of doing things.

Which way round do you think it works? Or do they both feed each other and become like a chicken-and-egg situation?

religiously

Why?

Because men historically & religously are scared of women, historically because we do mysterious things with our bodies which they did not understand - we produced children but they did not know why, we made them weak & wanting & they did not like it.

And we talk, so we know things.

& this scared them more. So they used their superior strength to create societies which would sublimate us, make us chattels & and allow them to feel superior to us & their desire for us.

And in many countries still do.

*institutionalised, sorry.

Nobody knows for sure, but we have theories. My suggestion is that back when humans had to scrape a living from the earth, both sexes could help with gathering berries, roots and fruit, as small nursing babies were carried by their mothers, and this could all take place near the 'camp' or place of shelter. Hunting for protein in the form of meat meant going much further afield, sometimes for days, so that fell to the stronger men in the group who weren't looking after babies or the old. When they returned with meat, they naturally felt entitled to eat the best bits themselves first as their reward, and so we have the beginnings of power and privilege- a pecking order, which would eventually have to be maintained with violence, and "logic" in the form of social ideas about who should be in charge. This ended up being reflected in early religions and other institutionaliser forms of social control. And once one group has power, they are very VERY reluctant to give that up.

Also, once they have power and access to the best food etc etc, they become more and more strong and able to maintain the status quo. A bit like Manchester United etc. can buy much better players than Accrington Stanley, and are unlikely to ever be beaten by them, because they have drawn up the rules of the game- if you aren't offended by my using a footballing analogy just because you a a boy .

That is what I believe.

I'd suggest you define your terms to start with. That makes it easier to answer a question which may be ambiguous, or have more than one appropriate way to approach it. So, decide (and say) in what way or ways you will interpret 'why' and then collect the answers from above which fit that best. You've got loads of great answers. You could start with the absolutely fundamental reasons - being generally physically weaker, being the sex that gestate and give birth etc - and then move on to the social/religious mores that are overlaid onto these.

You sound great btw, and very enterprising. Good luck.

14 and reading pregnancy threads already

I've just realised you don't need 10 reasons. Just print out this thread and tell your teacher that whoever invented sexism could see into the future, realised that one day women would spend all of their time gossiping on mumsnet & therefore decided it was best they didn't have any important jobs.

In the 50s, when I was a girl, most women stopped work when they married. Thus they earned no money. A mortgage was often in a husband's name so a woman had no power there either. She was effectively stuck...

Because while, up until very recently you always knew who the mother of a child was, but you couldn't be sure who the father was. (until DNA testing that is).

If property was to be passed down through a family, it becomes very important to know who the father is. To do this you need to control women so they don't have children with anyone other than their husbands. The easiest way of doing this is to build it into religion because who can argue with god? So what you do is keep knowledge, especially religious knowledge, restricted to men so they can interpret it in their favour.

Out of that evolved the concept of women as less than men and, in many cultures women are legally children. Keeping women oppressed has many advantages for men. You can, for example have sex with whoever you want then blame the woman for it (she was wearing a short skirt, she tempted me, she deserved it etc) Keeping women in second class status means you can pay them less, keep the jobs for men and make laws to benefit men at the expense of women.

Hully...how old is Jr?

I blame testosterone and possibly the amygdala.

Want me to ask on a big car forum and find out what answers we get?

Cinque - it's the 'hit harder' bit I think,

Hully: your DS seems fab!

I teach lovely students too but I bet none of them would have the balls courage to come on MN and ask us lot what we think!

Don't worry HullyJr, I won't tell the other kids so they don't find me on here

Would love to know what they say, HDS - do keep us updated on how this goes :)

I bet she has!

Tell your mum I think she's ACES, and I've met her in real life. And keep that telling in your head as well - your ma is fab.