The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.100

c16.100

Unfortunately cirumstances favoured the further curtailment of the freedom of women, as was inevitable under the influence of the above adage. From about the beginning of the Christian era, as we have shown already, women ceased to receive proper education and began to be married at an early age. As a rule, therefore, they were inferior to men in intelligence, grasping power and the experience of the world. It was therefore natural that some social thinkers should have come forward to emphasise that women have to be protected, not so much because it is the chivalrous duty of the stronger sex to do so, but because they are incapable of standing on their own legs. They must be always under the leading strings of men ; they deserve no independence.